After the Quidditch Game
by Lioness Amythest
Summary: Lily goes to a professional Quidditch game, England against Ireland unknown to her that there she will meet the inevitable James Potter. R&R Complete
1. Quidditch Games and James Potter

A/N: Hey guys well here's my new L/J story with a slight twist. There will be some things that aren't exactly canon such as Lily attending Beauxbatons but you'll see all in due course why. Well thanks for clicking here and definitely review and tell me if you like it.

After the Quidditch Game Chapter 1

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"Our seats are up these stairs Lily!" Julia Brooke yelled grabbing Lily Evan's hand and sashaying her way through the vast crowd of agitated people who were verifying their tickets with the group of flustered spoke wizards. The two best friends were attending a highly anticipated Quidditch game, England against Ireland.

"Hey you over there, stop trying to sneak in without a ticket." Wheezed an old wizard frowning upon a handsome young man who had long black hair.

"Oh c'mon Aldric old boy, I'm a best mate of England's chaser. Since when do I need a ticket to get in?" The young man asked looking quite affronted at the whole ordeal causing Julia to giggle and flip back her silky brown hair.

The two girls continued their way up to their seats. Lily and Julia finally settled down into their seats giving them a good view of the pitch, as they were right in the middle of the rows of seats in the stadium.

Lily gave a good look around her and saw the familiar hoops on each end for the teams to score in. The sun was peeking out through the clouds but wasn't glaring down on the fans so they didn't have to squint to see what was happening.

On the whole it seemed like a perfect day for the game and Lily was looking forward to it. Back in her school years at Beauxbatons some of her friends were on the team and slowly Lily became obsessed with the magical sport. Lily looked around the stadium and then her eyes caught on something. The young man had snuck in past Aldric and was seated over in the corner. He looked up at her to and winked then returned to his conversation with another guy.

Lily smiled and then heard Julia squeal loudly next to her and began to jump up and down clapping.

"There he is Lily! James Potter, top chaser on the England team! I can't believe this!" Lily looked over to where she was pointing and saw **the** James Potter that she read so much about in Witch's Weekly and other magazines.

He was casually walking onto the pitch, a hand on his Silver Arrow. He was even more handsome when you saw him in person. His hair was black and the rebellious type that would never lie straight. He was tall and thin yet very muscular. Lily could tell through the Quidditch robes he was wearing.

The expression on his face looked like he knew he was indeed gorgeous and one of the best Quidditch players in the world. He smiled at the crowd while straightening his blue quidditch robes and then gave a wave to the crowd causing the girls to shriek and swoon. He turned around seeing someone gesturing to him to come back. Giving a sheepish grin he walked back to where the rest of his team was.

Lily looked around and was surprised to see that the stadium was now filled. She could feel excitement coursing through her body. She had been so caught up in watching James Potter that she hadn't noticed all the wizards and witches that had arrived on the scene.

Lily looked over to Julia a wide smile on her face and saw her pulling out her England flag shaking it happily.

"Sorry Jul but I am a full supporter for Ireland all the way even if James Potter is on England." Lily said grinning pulling out an emerald green and white hat. She pulled it over her auburn hair and saw Julia shaking her head at Lily's patriotic hat for Ireland. They had never quite agreed on the same teams.

"Whatever Lily, you'll see after this game who the winner is." Julia said tugging the hat off Lily's head playfully.

Lily glared at Julia with her piercing emerald eyes and grabbed the hat back smiling feeling another wave of excitement bowl her over. The game would be starting soon and she was excited. She heard a movement behind her and looked up to see the young man they had seen when she and Julia had come in.

"Erm I was wondering if I could sit with you two fine ladies." The young man asked shaking his black hair out of his gray eyes smiling at them handsomely.

"Just you see I don't fancy sitting with that odd bugger over there." He said his eyes twinkling nodding his head in the direction where he was. There was a nerdy looking man who was talking a mile a minute to anyone who would listen about his attempts at trying out for the England Quidditch Team.

Julia smiled at him flirtatiously and patted the seat between her and Lily. "Sure…my name's Julia and this is Lily." She said sizing him up and then smiling. Lily grinned knowing Julia as a boy magnet.

"Pleasure. Sirius Black" He said nodding to both of the girls grinning. "Y'know I am here to see my best mate."

"Oh and who would that be?" Lily asked raising an eyebrow for she had taken in that he had a mischievous look to him.

"That would be James Potter." He said smirking slightly waiting for a reaction.

"Are you serious?" Julia asked widening her dark blue eyes but then her lips quirked and she said quickly, "Actually don't answer that." Lily laughed knowing Sirius would have fully intended to do a corny joke on the other use of his name.

"Annnnnnnnnd we're starting the highly anticipated game of England against Ireland!" Yelled out the commentator who was wearing deep plum robes and was seated a few rows above Lily, Sirius and Julia.

Cheers and yells arose from the stadium as the Quidditch teams shot out from nowhere. The pitch seemed to shake when James appeared, his robes blowing in the slight breeze.

The two teams went to their separate sides and got into position. The short and slightly balding referee Konoqoi flew out on pitch and held the golden snitch for the crowd to see the glinting wings and then it was gone. The scarlet Quaffle rose in the air as the two black bludgers did and he blew the whistle and the game was off.

Lily's eyes darted back in between the game blocking out the commentator's loud gabble as she watched the game with her mouth slightly agape. She had been to professional games before but this one seemed to be something more. Ireland's beaters were absolutely amazing but yet England's chasers were still extraordinary. James Potter was flitting up and down the pitch scoring several goals narrowly dodging bludgers.

"And Ireland's keeper amazingly saves that quirky pass between Potter and Johnson." The commentator yelled his voice booming down to the entire stadium.

"Yes and he'll have a hard time saving this one. To Potter, passes it to Johnson and then Samson but- ouch nice bludger from Irelands beater. Score for Ireland, and the standings are England leading 90 – 60."

But then something quite fascinating yet crazy happened. One of the chasers on England had to throw the quaffle randomly as one of the beaters came crashing into her. Lily watched the ball soar towards her and her eyes widened realizing it was heading towards her. She put her hands meekly in front of her and managed to catch the quaffle.

"Oh this little lady here has the quaffle!" The commentator yelled and exactly the only person Lily didn't want coming up to retrieve it was James Potter. He flew up to her row.

Sirius however found it all quite hysterical and said, "Fancy seeing you here James."

James however took no notice to Sirius. He was staring at Lily with interest in his hazel eyes. Lily lifted her head high and quirked an eyebrow as she handed the quaffle to him keeping her eyes locked to his the whole time. Their hands brushed together as she handed it to him and it seemed to snap her and him back into reality.

James nodded at her and then broke eye contact and flew off into the middle of the pitch passing the quaffle to Samson and then they were flitting back and forth with much more velocity gaining much more points.

Sirius leaned over to Julia and whispered to her so Lily wouldn't hear, "Dunno bout you but it seemed awfully hot in here when dear old Jamesie came up here." He said and Julia nodded her mouth slightly agape that one of the hottest quidditch players had been that close!

Lily shook her head replaying the scene in her head. Why did he gaze at her like that? She had watched him fly into the row and his eyes glittered with something. What the hell? Lily shook her head and looked back into the game yet couldn't forget that feeling of electricity when their hands had brushed together.

James seemed to have even more skill as he dived in around through the pitch passing the quaffle to his teammates and scoring. Soon it was quite close as the two teams were tied and were very anxious. Lily looked from up the pitch concentrating on the Irish Seeker who was currently flying around the pitch then her eyes locked onto a pair of hazel ones and she blinked confusingly.

"Lily he was staring at you!" Julia said leaning over Sirius who didn't seem to mind too much.

"I noticed." Lily said dryly as she broke eye contact feeling something stir in the pit of her stomach.

"Hm looks like you've caught dear old James eye. That doesn't happen to often specially when it's someone in the stands." Sirius said stroking his chin and looking thoughtfully across the pitch at his friend.

"Thanks, I feel deeply privileged." Lily continued in the same dry tone.

"There goes the Irish Seeker! Annnnnnnnnnnnnd it's going to be a close game! England's seeker finally gets the hint and there she goes after it but-James Potter comes crashing through the Irish Seeker and manages to block him from getting the snitch and scoring at the same time!" Roars of approval arouse from the crowd.

Sirius yelled out in a strangled voice, "The seeker, he has it!"

The crowd looked around and indeed the England Seeker has caught it. England had won. "England takes this match with a leading score of 240-190. Close game all." Lily gave a few disheartened claps but smiled all the same. England had deserved to win. Lily had to admit (though grudgingly) that James Potter was astounding.

"See I told you Lily! Ahaha England won with James on it." Julia said while applying lip-gloss to her lips and scanning the crowds.

"Oh James will be in a lovely mood when he comes to visit us. I know he will, I mean who wouldn't want to meet you two lovely ladies and catch up with me?" Sirius said shaking the hair out of his face and looking around.

"Oh c'mon Julia, we both know Ireland is the better team. They were simply have an off day." Lily said stubbornly rolling her eyes and shoving the patriotic hat back on head.

"Were they really?" Came an amused voice behind Lily and she felt her stomach fill with dread.

"Ohh…nice to see you James!" Sirius said clapping him on the back. Lily turned around to see none other than James Potter who was looking at her with amusement in his eyes.

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A/N: Well here's my new little ficcie of Lily and James. This idea just like popped into my head one day and I thought how cool would that be if Lily met James (after Hogwarts) at a quidditch game where he's playing professionally. I'm excited to be finally putting this story up.

Review and I'll update.


	2. Dinner Invitations and Silly Rumors

A/N: Wowzer you guys amaze me! The reviews were lovely to see in my inbox after a particularly long day at school. Thanks and keep them coming. Oh someone asked whether this one a one-shot well after seeing another chapter that should answer it but I think this ficcie will be a smaller one. About (we'll see) 10-15 chapters? Yeah..

Disclaimer: Can't remember whether I've done one of these on the last chapter but yeah anything you recognize is the lovely Jk Rowlings.

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There was a slight pause for Lily as she looked at James who was watching her. He didn't seem to feel uncomfortable in the slightest. On the contrary he was standing there with a grin on his face, the breeze blowing through his already windswept hair.

"Oh yes I rather think they did have an off day." Lily responded in a even voice.

"Hmm well maybe it would be better if we talked it over dinner?" James inquired all the while looking at Lily, his hazel eyes quite guarded. Julia let out an audible gasp behind Lily and poked her quite hard in the back as if urging her to accept this rather spontaneous once in a lifetime invitation.

It was as if she was battling with herself. Inside her conscious told her to be careful. She didn't know this James Potter, for all she could know he just wanted her for other reasons and none to do with discussing the quidditch team of Ireland. But the reckless side of her over-powered her thoughts.

"I guess that would do." Lily said giving him a slight smile in exchange for the smile that now alighted his features.

"Sounds good to me. I'll be seeing you this weekend at 7." And with that James nodded to Lily and to the wide-eyed Julia and then walked off with his confident stride.

"Nice to meet you girls. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of each other then we reckoned on." Sirius said tipping an imaginary hat to the two and then walking off after James.

Julia waited until she could no longer see Sirius or James in sight and then rounded on Lily. "Oh my gosh. What just happened!" Julia squealed jumping up and down looking very much like a young 16 year old rather then a 21-year-old woman.

Lily let out a half grin and shook her head slightly as if just fully realizing what had just happened. "I dunno."

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After the quidditch game Lily and Julia headed over to their favorite Chinese restaurant where their other best friend Elissa was currently employed. It was in a muggle area since Elissa was a half-blood and still deeply loved the muggle world even though she was a trained witch.

Julia's trained eye scouted her out first and said excitedly, "There she is! ELISSA!" She screamed not so quietly and Lily inwardly cringed… Julia definitely wasn't one to be shy even in the open-public.

"Think you could keep it down Jul?" Lily asked sarcastically but smiled at the blonde figure walking towards them. It was funny, at Beauxbatons and after that the three of them had always been close friends.

Elissa Brooke was taller then both girls. She had long blonde hair flowing down her back and dark brown eyes that could detect a liar in anyone she met. Julia Adams was the brunette of the group. Her hair was shoulder length and she had deep blue mysterious eyes that caught the interest of many boys. And last but not least there was Lily Evans with her unusual but very attractive features. She had mesmerizing emerald green eyes and long wavy auburn hair.

Elissa spotted Lily and the sheepish grin of Julia and then said in a fake exasperated voice, "Not you two again." Lily stuck her tongue out at her and started to say something but Julia interrupted her.

"We have some major news to tell you!" She said dramatically. Elissa raised her eyes and then waved them over to a booth sitting down with them as well.

"Okay talk fast or old Herman might just have a hernia." Elissa said sarcastically, snapping her fingers impatiently at the two.

"Okay okay well don't freak out but you know how we went to the Quidditch game? Well miraculously the Quaffle went flying towards Lily-"

Elissa interrupted and said, "What she didn't catch it and it smacked her in the face?" Elissa asked cracking up and smacking the table.

"Shaddup." Lily said pretend glaring at her.

"Hello! I'm trying to tell a story here. Anyways Lily actually did catch it and guess who came up to retrieve it?" Julia asked widening her eyes for the effect.

"I dunno the fat referee?" Elissa asked.

"No James Potter! And get this after the game he came up behind us and asked Lily out on a date this Saturday. Isn't that absurd!" Julia finished quite breathlessly making sure Elissa or Lily couldn't interrupt her.

Elissa looked at Julia letting the news digest but she still had this look of incredulity on her face. "You sure you weren't just imagining things? Sometimes too much Tylenol can do that to a person." Elissa said mentioning Julia's only cure from the horrendous headaches she would get everyday.

"No damn it, I'm being serious!" Julia said excitedly. Lily thought back to Sirius and a goofy grin stole across her face wondering what he would say if he was here with the girls.

"Whoa." Elissa said.

"I know so anyways it's this weekend so you need to come over Friday night" Julia babbled on.

"Hey Elissa get the rice and noodles for takeout eh?" Lily asked, she wanted to get back to the flat that her and Julia lived at. A lot had happened today and her mind was buzzing.

"Alrightie I'll be right back." Elissa said flouncing off to the kitchen and retrieving the girls food for them and taking the galleons from the two. Elissa blew the two girls a kiss and then headed off to the small crowd that had appeared during Elissa's "break".

Lily and Julia apparated to their flat and were now lounging in their living room. Both had changed into their pajamas and were flipping through Witch's Weekly and Julia's subsciption of Transfigured-Woman that had all the gossip on the wizarding communities celebrities. Both girls were a bit giddy after the amount of Honeydukes chocolate and Chinese food they had consumed that evening.

"Lils I know what you can ask James when you go on your date. Lets say it's a request of information from me. Ask him whether the rumors are true about the night before an important quidditch game he takes a lavender scented bubble bath to calm his nerves and after whether his Mummy comes over and tucks him in to bed. I've been dying to know about that one for AGES!" Julia said breaking out into a charade of giggles which Lily responded to by throwing a pillow at her friend.

"Honestly the rumors they come up with in Transfigured-Teen. Though I wouldn't mind knowing" Lily said and then fell into the same contagious giggles with her friend that you often get after an overdose of sugar and good times with your girlfriend.

The two girls sat there looking up to the ceiling that they had charmed to look like the sky and as it was evening, stars now shone brightly in the dark sky.

"I can't seem to believe that I am actually going to dinner with him in two days." Lily murmured while fiddling with her hair.

"Me neither Lils." Julia responded back lazily. Then all of a sudden Julia shot up and looked at Lily with an excited expression on her face.

"What?" Lily asked a bit apprehensively.

"Can you say shopping!" Julia exclaimed her face glowing.

"Oh Merlin…" Lily sighed as her best friend started to gabble on about what Lily should wear to this extravagant dinner invite.

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Lily was in a comfortable dreamy sleep until she felt someone prodding. Hello did they not see that she was sleeping? "Go away." Lily mumbled swatting her arms about in the air.

"Lily, Lily I just realized something." Julia practically yelled in her ear causing Lily to let out a shriek and looked wildly around looking for the culprit but when she saw it was Julia she just pulled her purple fleecy Eeyore comforter over her head trying to block out the screech of Julia's voice.

"LILY! James Potter is a very famous so whose to say the Daily Prophet wouldn't have found out that he's taking a girl from the stands of his quidditch team to dinner hm?" At this remark Lily's eyes widened underneath the comforter and she yanked it off looking at Julia's face hoping to see that she was joking. Sadly she wasn't.

"I'm gonna go get the Daily Prophet." Julia dashed off and slammed the front door no doubt racing down to the Little Pink Store convenience store for the magical community in London.

Lily sat there thinking about how it had been simple yesterday but how things could get complicated fast. Of course the news would pick up something like that. They were probably cooking up all kinds of disgusting rumors about this. In record time the front door was closed and Julia came rushing into Lily's room.

"I've got it. Go to the sports section." She said handing the newspaper to Lily. Lily anxiously flipped through the newspaper and then came to the section. She scanned it and then saw a blowup picture of James shaking his hand in the air for victory after the game. Beneath it was the article:

_England wins against Ireland but could Potter want more?_

_The highly anticipated game between Ireland and England has passed and England just managed to scrape the win after a highly interesting trick from James Potter. He managed to block the Irish Seeker and gain a goal for his team at the same time. We didn't get a chance to interview him after the game but we did get a shot of him talking with a mystery girl sporting a green and white striped hat. Could this be a girlfriend of one of the players on Ireland's team and James is thinking of breaking that up as well? We'll keep tabs on this story we can assure you. – Lisa Spangeil _

"Wait a minute…Lisa Spangeil? Isn't that the one who truly hated you back in Beauxbatons?" Julia asked suspiciously glaring at the blurry picture they had managed of Lily talking to James. Luckily Lily's back was turned so you couldn't make her out.

"Aw frig I bet you it is…just lovely. If she ever found out wouldn't she have a hayday, probably spread a bunch of rumors. She has the power." Lily said dejectedly, not looking forward so much to the date after reading the article.

"Hey don't be having second thoughts about this date. Lisa would die to be in your place and I'm sure if she ever found out it was you James could prevent her from saying anything about you in the Prophet. Don't worry bout it. Now c'mon are we going shopping or what? I owled Elissa this morning." Julia said waving her wand at the blinds revealing a glorious sunny day.

The three girls went out shopping in London and explored the amazing stores and shops scoring out funky shirts or pants. Lily managed to forget about the article that she had read that morning but knew when it came down to the crunch if Lisa did find out that it was Lily she definitely wouldn't keep her big mouth shut.

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It was finally the awaited evening of the weekend and Lily was looking at herself critically in the bathroom mirror. Julia had gone wild throwing all kinds of outfits together for Lily but in the end Lily forked through some of the rather scandalous outfits and found something that was agreeable.

Honestly for some reason she didn't feel like impressing James with her beauty or sense of style. So she had picked out a jean skirt that came a little bit above the knee and a cream cashmere v-necked sweater that made her glow. Her hair was down naturally in waves and as she never usually wore that much makeup she didn't feel the need to begin tonight.

DiNgDoNg

"Lily he's here!" Julia said bounding into the room looking at Lily's choice.

"Why can't you ever listen to what I point out to you? He's probably bringing you to a fancy resturant." Julia said exasperately.

"Oh yes and this dress here is a perfectly tasteful dress to go to dinner with James Potter in." Lily said sarcastically shoving the short black mini dress in Julia's face.

"It's just a bit short." Julia said twirling her hair with her finger grinning sheepishly at Lily.

"Here we go…" Lily muttered under her breath. She walked over to the door and slid into her beige shoes that gave her a tiny bit of a height. She grabbed her purse and looked at herself one last time in the oval shaped mirror in the hallway.

"Don't forget the rumors. Could be a bit of an ice breaker." Julia said blowing her a kiss for good luck then hiding out of sight.

Lily opened up the door smiling slightly thinking to herself that that would be the last resort she would go to if she couldn't think of anything. Her eyes met James and he was dressed in casual attire, jeans and a handsome dark green sweater.

"Erm hey. Ready to go?" He asked giving her a quirky grin and offering her his arm and she wondered whether he had already forgotten her name. Lily nodded, took his arm and then closed the door.

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A/N: Well second chapter's all typed up! Third chapter shouldn't be too long to come out since I already have the dinner scene written out. Review and I'll update! Ciao. Suggestions welcome.


	3. Risky kisses and Fancy Restaurants

A/N: Woooooooooot you guys are pretty awesome! Thanks for all who reviewed, read and put me on their alerts and favorites. I have a stinking cold and my nose is right red from blowing it all day  Now to business, I have a rough idea of what's going to happen in this story but if anyone wants to throw out some suggestions or things to happen just leave it in the review. Lata.

Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling!

Chapter 3

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The two of them walked in a comfortable silence enjoying the last moments of autumn with the leaves whirling around in the slight breeze on the ground. Lily assumed that they wouldn't be going anywhere's to fancy because James didn't seem to dressed up though he did look very handsome.

"I have been wanting to ask you what school you acquired your magic skills. I'm quite sure I would have remembered a Lily Evans at Hogwarts." James said grinning slightly showing off his perfectly straight teeth. Lily inwardly sighed. He remembered.

"I went to Beauxbatons." Lily replied grinning as well for it seemed contagious when you were around James.

"Ah so I'm guessing you can speak French?" James asked his eyes alight with amusement.

"Mais qui Monsieur." James stroked his chin in attempt to make it look like he was thinking and said, "I can see this becoming a deadly weapon in time."

Lily laughed thinking it would be rather spontaneous if he asked her for another date after this. I mean come on it was James Potter. She had a feeling he was just playing with her and not exactly serious but she wanted to make it certain to him that she wasn't like other girls.

"Where are we going to dinner?" Lily questioned twirling a piece of her hair.

"Someplace low profile. I saw the Prophet this morning." James said locking gaze with Lily.

"I know the girl who wrote the article up. She went to Beauxbatons as well and let's just say we weren't the best of friends." Lily replied looking off into space.

"Yeah that one is rather odd…she interviewed me once but the questions were definitely not what I would think for the Prophet. She was asking me about my love life and questioning silly rumors about whether I have lavender scented bubble baths before each game." James said shaking his head in disbelief.

"Oh so it's not true?" Lily blurted out when he mentioned the rumor her and Julia had giggled over the previous night.

"What's not true?" James asked looking at Lily as if she'd grown another head.

A giggle escaped her and Lily looked back at him masking her face into seriousness. "Well you know, whether you do take lavender bubble baths before each game."

James turned away laughing slightly and then came so close to her that Lily tensed up. "We'll save that for another time how bout." Lily gave a slight push and she raised her eyebrows at him.

A red light went off into her head and she stopped to think. She was flirting non stop with a boy she had just met a few days ago and he just so happened to be a famous Quidditch player but she couldn't help feeling she had already known him a long time ago.

James abruptly stopped and Lily crashed into the back of him. She couldn't help noticing how soft the green sweater was and that he smelled good.

"Am I really that fascinating?" James asked when he had turned around to see Lily staring at him.

Lily shook her head to clear her thoughts and said, "Hardly. I was rather interested in that lovely sweater that you're wearing. Did your Mummy pick it out?" Lily asked innocently tilting her head at him.

"Har har." He said dryly.

"Well are we going or not?" Lily asked noticing he wasn't moving anymore.

"Someone's impatient." James said grinning. Lily merely rolled her eyes and tapped her foot expectantly. "Okay okay, lets do side apparation since you don't know where we're going."

He offered an arm for her and she took it grimacing slightly for she never enjoyed the…sensation of apparating. Truly uncomfortable. Lily closed her eyes slightly and they left the dusky London and appeared in front of a rather expensive looking restaurant. This was low profile to him?

Lily let go of James arm and couldn't disguise the excited feelings swirling inside of her. She had never really been to a fancy restaurant before and it definitely would be different with James. James lightly tugged on her hand and the two of them entered being greeted by a polished looking waiter who bowed to them.

To her embarrassment Lily felt an idiotic smile creep into her face at the formality of this restaurant and that she was wearing a sweater and a jean skirt here. "Right this way please." The waiter replied and James and Lily followed him to their seats. James (quite the gentleman) helped her into her seat and then sat down opposite of her.

"Quite the restaurant." Lily said nodding her head around to the large crystal chandelier that was shimmering in the middle of the room and the extravagant fish aquarium on the other side of the room.

James smiled and then leaned forward taking the glass of champagne the waiter had poured for both of them. Lily took the hint and took hers as well letting the sweet bubbly liquid slide down while looking at him deeply from across the table. He inclined his head to the menu and Lily put down her glass whilst picking up the menu.

Her eyes grew large but she made sure the book she was holding in her hand covered her so James would not see. The food was priced ridiculously high and she couldn't help feeling extremely grateful that James was paying. The waiter came over shortly after acquiring their menus there the two of them sat waiting to see who would strike a conversation first.

Lily decided she would and asked him, "How long have you been playing Quidditch? You're quite good even though I still favor Ireland." She said smiling slightly.

"Shame to hear how you favor Ireland over England. Must be your red hair. Though in time I hope I can change your mind. I've played at Hogwarts since second year always as the chaser though one year I did play Beater with my friend Sirius." James said a grin tugging at his face when he mentioned Lily's favoritism of Ireland.

At the comment of the red hair and Ireland Lily tugged her hair and said, "What you don't like my hair?"

James blinked and shook his head. "No it's what caught my eyes when we first met. Set you off from everyone else." Lily smiled but thought of the words he had just said. When we first met…it seemed like ages ago for now they were talking like old friends.

The two of them talked and laughed talking about their old school days and comparing the differences between the two schools finally coming down to a silly bet about what school was better.

"Beauxbatons any day!" Lily said snapping her fingers in James face.

James laughed, "What are you still in second year? That finger snapping is so old."

Lily quirked her head and narrowed her eyes though they were sparkling. "Whatever, boy who has his mother come and tuck him in."

James eyes widened and he looked around the room frantically seeing if anyone had heard her say that. Before he could open his mouth their waiter appeared in front of them holding their plates of exquisite food. James immediately closed his mouth smelling the delightful aroma flowing from the plates.

James dug right into his food but he had very good manners surprisingly for a Quidditch player. Lily had imagined him shoveling food in his mouth but no he was acting like the perfect gentleman. They exchanged words and ate through their meal. After, the dessert was served and it was creamy vanilla ice cream drizzled with a light strawberry sauce.

"That was pretty good I have to say." James said while finishing up the last bit of the ice cream.

"Yeah thanks for inviting me." Lily said genuinely smiling that made her glow all over. She had been a bit apprehensive at the beginning but she was glad she had come.

As if reading her thoughts James said, "See it's not so bad going on a date with a Quidditch player hm? We're not all what some people think we are." His eyes were light when he said this but Lily could see the sincerity behind his words.

"No you're not that bad at all." Lily replied back smiling.

James collected the bill and both of them stood up and he went over to pay. Lily walked past some of the tables and could feel rude whispering behind her. No doubt they were picking apart the way she dressed at such a fancy restaurant and how she was having dinner with the James Potter. She turned and smiled brightly at them letting them know she had heard them.

James and Lily walked out of the restaurant and they were greeted with darkness that was pressing against them other than the light filtering through it.

"So Lily would you consider going out again?" James asked her putting his hands in his pockets as he walked.

Lily stared at him for a second and thought. Was he being serious or no? Was this a game he liked to play with "eye catchers" in the crowd at his Quidditch games? Doubt filled her mind banishing all the happy thoughts she had while in the restaurant with him. She had always been doubtful about a lot of things. She did it thought just to keep herself from getting hurt. To keep her from disappointment.

"Yeah actually I would." Lily said in a quiet voice.

James turned to her and grinned happily. "Well that's really neat. I was wondering actually, I'm having a little get together at my flat this weekend. Some of my friends from Hogwarts will be there. I'd like you to meet them. I think you would like them."

"Sounds fun enough." Lily said smiling. They apparated back near Lily's place and she quickly recognized her and Julia's little flat. The lights were on in the living room and Lily felt a grin creep up. If Julia wasn't sitting in there watching their Muggle TV waiting for Lily to tell her all about the date then her name wasn't Lily Evans.

"Well I guess we're here right?" James asked clearing his throat slightly nodding his head towards the little path to the door.

"Yep this is my little old flat alright. I had a lot of fun." Lily said honestly tugging at her sweater slightly. Lily was quite conscious that he was pretty close to her.

"First dates never usually end with a kiss do they? Too risky hm?" James asked Lily grinning down at her making her stomach flop around.

"Yes I think so." Lily turned to leave and had her hand on the handle.

James turned her around and said gruffly, "But I am risky." And he moved in kissing her in the dark outside of Lily's flat. Lily kissed him back noting how soft his lips were.

Pulling back slowly from the kiss she brushed a piece of hair that had fallen into his face and turned back to the door smiling. "I guess I'll be seeing you this weekend then." James nodded and then said, "Goodnight. I'll owl you the directions."

Lily waved to him and then he apparated. She turned the knob scolding herself slightly for the things she was feeling. She had just met this boy a few days ago and just one simple kiss like that turned her wild. _Physical attraction, that's what it is she reasoned with herself._

She heard a squeal in the other room as she shut the door locking it as it was later in the evening now. Julia came bounding in the hallway looking an odd sight. She had a creamy orange facial mask on and her hair was rolled up in curlers. "How was it Lily Bunny!" She asked excitedly using the nickname her and Elissa always used when they were younger.

"Not bad." Lily said knowing that this tidbit of information would drive Julia up the wall. Heh heh heh …

"Not bad! Your telling me not bad and you just got back from dinner with a HOT wizard celebrity? Spill because I thought I heard something outside that didn't sound like talking." Julia said smiling evilly and then laughing at Lily. Lily felt her face redden slightly as Julia mentioned the "kiss".

"I'm reeeally tired. Let me be." Lily said throwing her purse on the floor and walking off to her room. Thinking Julia had actually let her be she slid on some pajamas and pulled at her blankets flicking her wand to turn off the light. Snuggling down she pulled the fleecy comforter tighter around her.

"Ommph!" And then Lily heard Julia giggling loudly as Lily tried to catch the breath that had been knocked out of her chest. "JULIA! I was almost to sleep." Lily whined pulling the blanket over her head.

"Off to dream about a certain messy haired Quidditch player?" Julia asked and then went giggling off again.

"Don't you worry, I'll be asking about it tomorrow morning." Julia said throwing a pillow at Lily's head and leaving the room.

Lily smiled into her pillow thinking of the kiss she had shared with James and feeling slightly excited for the get together this weekend at James flat. Who knows what would happen.

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A/N: Well hello hello! Happy Valentines Day to all … or perhaps belated when this chapter is posted on considering the time it takes for it to upload. Nevertheless it's done and we are advancing slowly into the plot! Suggestions are welcome and please review! Review and I will update! Ciao.


	4. Mysterious Stalkers

A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews, they are very stimulating to see that what I write is a little bit appreciated! You guys are the bomb. And now on to the story as there isn't anything more to address.

Disclaimer: The eloquent JK Rowlings…

Chapter 4 of After the Quidditch Game

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Lily crossed the sidewalk to the street where she was heading to. She was working in her little Rose Bisbut café that late Saturday afternoon and then onwards she would head to James. Lily had asked Julia and Elissa if they wanted to join her but Julia told her with a mischievous grin that she had a date and Elissa was working that evening. So it was just Lily going.

She didn't mind though…she was pretty outgoing, meeting James friends wouldn't be that bad. Lily looked up through the hordes of signs and street vendors keeping her eye peeled for the sideways rose protruding from the top of the doorway. Finally it came into view and Lily entered the café with a smile hearing the tinkling of the wind catchers above her head.

Sliding in back behind the register Lily threw her jacket aside and felt someone's hands come up and cover her face. "Guess who?" Came a deep male's voice. She felt herself grinning knowing who it was.

"Hmm…this is a hard one. Josh?" Lily asked in a fake questioning voice.

The hands covering her eyes came off and she turned around to see a very handsome young man. He had curly blond locks and deep-set blue eyes. Josh made the job interesting for her because he was the same age as her and they had a lot of fun together.

"How'd you know?" Josh asked his eyes twinkling down on her.

"Oh I dunno, you're the only one else working tonight?" Lily replied tying up her long hair into a ponytail.

"You never know, a random dude off the street could have came up on done this to you? You didn't think about that." Josh said shaking the hair out of his eyes while looking down at her.

Lily just shook her head and said under her breath, "I'm glad it was you."

It was 4 pm in the afternoon so it was bound to get busy. There were already a few people in the café. Lily filled some pots full of water and put them on their burners to get specialty tea and coffee ready. Josh went out back to the storage room to refill some of the canisters with the specialized tea and coffee.

The tinkling of the wind catchers rang and Lily looked up to see who had entered the shop. A man with long blonde hair and a pointed face walked in with a look of distaste as he glanced around the room. When his gaze fell on Lily she felt her insides twist at the cold gray eyes that seemed to be probing her. She tore her eyes away from him and busied herself in back not liking the look the man with the gray eyes had sent to his cloaked companion.

For the next 5 to 6 hours it was filled with Lily and Josh filling up cups after cups of coffee or tea and passing it on to the customers. The small café was so crowded that Lily couldn't tell if the two suspicious looking men had left or not but they had vanished off her mind when the hordes of crowd off the street came piling in.

Wiping her hands on a dishcloth Lily smiled up at Josh who was wiping a kettle clean.

"Jeesh what a day." She said tiredly rubbing her eyes with her hand.

"I'll say. Remember I had to scare off that teen who was looking you up and down? Kids these days…" Josh said running a hand through his messy blonde curls.

"You were just jealous when he came and flirted with me." Lily said smiling mischievously pulling the elastic out of her hair letting it tumble down.

Josh rolled his eyes and said, "I was rather hoping he would come after me you know, how handsome I am and everything."

"Uhuh…didn't know you were gay." Lily responded laughing lightly. She was relieved to see that those two men were gone and that her and Josh were the only ones in the store.

"Neither did I! See ya later Lily. You okay with locking up tonight?" Josh asked while pulling over a sweater.

"Sure thing Joshy-poo." Lily said giggling at his look of disgust when she voiced his nickname that she and Katrina (other employee) had named him.

"I'm out then. See you on Tuesday then." He said nodding to her and then opened the door the tinkling sound coming.

Lily became aware of how dark it was rapidly becoming and decided she had better step up the pace of getting to James since it was already 10 pm. She turned the lights off in the store but then heard voices speaking very near her, outside? She was just being paranoid…probably just some kids out hanging around. Lily walked to the door, locked it in from the inside and closed the door.

The air was crisp outside swishing itself around her uncovered legs since she was wearing a skirt. Lily walked in silence for a bit humming slightly feeling excited to go to James. Glancing up at the moon that was almost full she began to pull out some gloves but then stopped suddenly. The hair on her neck pricked up slightly as she listened to a vague sound.

She had this feeling that she was being followed and she could definitely hear the murmurings off voices. Trying to be casual Lily dropped her handbag and made sure something fell out of it. Going to retrieve the tube of lip-gloss that fell she spied two men but couldn't make out their faces. Just great.

Shoving the item into her purse Lily set off to a brisk walk her ears peeled listening to their quickened pace as well. _I should've gotten Josh to walk me home._

_I so don't want to break into a run but James apartment isn't that far away from what I can remember him owling me _she thought trying to think rapidly for some solution out. But Lily let one glance back and realized they were perhaps a good length away and let out in a jog. She flushed when she heard a shout behind her and she quickened up her pace.

"I knew I would regret wearing this skirt." She muttered under her breath while running quickly in the uncomfortable skirt that was rising up while two men were chasing after her.

Slipping in between an alley and up a different street Lily kept on the alert her eyes wide trying to perceive anything through the darkness. She heard voices coming down her way and she began to panic. Looking around wildly she looked for an escape or someplace to hide.

_Oh my, here I have been panicking about where to hide and I'm a witch. _Thinking of the spell to charm her invisible Lily grabbed her wand just in time and flicked the wand in a sharp complicated twist hoping it worked. She held her breath as the two men came down the alley looking around.

_Good lord, it's the men from the café this afternoon_ she thought feeling her heart pumping quickly. They were wizards for they were holding out their wands and had omitted Lumos.

"Where the hell did she get off to? And she's a filthy mudblood, how did that piece of scum outsmart us Augustus?" The man with the slick blonde hair asked with a sneer looking around. At one point it seemed his eyes locked with hers and she waited with bated breath but he looked away.

"I don't know Luscius but we have found the girl he has been searching for. Lily Evans." Augustus said his eyes gleaming.

"No doubt Dumbledore has already recruited her to the little Order of the Phoenix. I'm sure with a bit of persuasion and seeing things from a different angle she will come willingly." He smirked and then jabbed his head for Augustus to follow him out of the dirty alley.

Lily breathed a sigh of relief sagging against the brick wall breathing in and out slowly. Her brow furrowed when she began thinking about what they talking about, about how "he" needed her and then mentioning her belonging to a secret organization.

_The Order of the Phoenix, doesn't really sound familiar_ she thought. Something nagged at her that the sooner she got to James the better. She had a feeling he knew something about this Order. She did not know herself why she suspected this. She just did.

Pushing herself away from the wall she decided not to life the invisible charm until she got to James. Those creeps could still be on the look out for her and she definitely did not want to chance anything from the way they were speaking. She felt a prick of fear when she remembered once again them saying someone needed her.

Glancing around the street to make sure no one was in sight she began to run the last distance between herself and to James flat. She really needed to get there. Keeping an eye out for the flat he had described in his note she finally saw it come in view.

Running up to the door she looked around making sure no would see a girl randomly appearing in the air since she was lifting the charm. Not feeling the need to wait for him to open the door Lily quickly opened it and slid inside the door.

Someplace out there in the dark a voice spoke barely above a whisper. "She is the girl we are looking for all right. The Dark Lord will be pleased."

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Lily had just closed the door when she heard Sirius say, "Lily! What a delightful surprise. You won't believe how many times James asked me what time it was tonight. Someone was anxious for your arrival eh?" Sirius asked his eyes twinkling mischievously but then turned solemn looking when he caught her expression.

Before he could say anything to her James appeared by her looking rather embarrassed at what Sirius said. "Don't mind him Lily I was just-- wait are you okay?" James asked looking down at her worriedly.

The after effects of having just escaped from potentially dangerous Wizards were beginning to have its effects on Lily. Her skin was pale and her eyes were large. Trying to cover it up she hastily said, "Oh it was nothing. Just a little encounter with the occasional weirdo on the street. Nothing too serious." She said trying to look truthful.

"An encounter with some random weirdo huh? Somehow I think there's more to this then your saying." Sirius said suspiciously looking at her.

Lily looked at James and Sirius who were both looking at her with suspiciousness. She sighed and figured she might as well tell them. They might know a two or thing about what the Order of the Phoenix nonsense was about. "Okay well can we go sit down someplace so I can tell the whole thing?" She asked tugging at her skirt self-consciously.

"Course. Did I tell you, you look stunning tonight?" Sirius asked slipping his arm in between hers. Lily laughed softly knowing this man would end up being a good friend of hers. He had a gift of making people feeling better. James had a small pout going on and Lily quirked her eyebrow.

So the three of them sat down in the slightly messy room. Lily turned to James and asked, "Didn't you say you were having a little get together tonight? You can't be telling me that Sirius is the only person you know to invite? Lily asked innocently widening her eyes at him.

"Are you insulting me?" James asked pretend glaring down at her.

"Y'know Prongs I think she just might be." Sirius replied. Lily raised an eyebrow at the usage of Padfoot and stored it in her mind for later.

"What d'you propose we do Padfoot?" James asked his devious friend.

"She's laughing at us Padfoot. Time to get her." Sirius said standing up with a mischievous look in his eyes. Before the two could execute their brilliant plan Lily flicked her wand up and she was gone from their eyes.

"She's gone! Where'd she go!" Sirius asked looking around as if to spot her someplace hiding.

"Nah she's just messing with us Padfoot. Most likely an invisible charm." James said rolling his eyes as if it was rather childish of her to do that.

Sirius crossed the room and went into the kitchen determined to find her. James stayed where he was looking off into space. Lily grinned evilly and stepped very near to him so he would sense her.

"Invisibility isn't at all childish. It can catch one completely off guard can it not?" She asked sweetly feeling him tense up at her proximity.

"You seem talented enough at Charms to pull off a complex spell that fast without any notice." James said keeping conversation. Taking out her wand she flicked it and reappeared. James looked at her with approval in his eyes. He obviously was impressed by her skills as a witch.

Sirius entered the room and yelled out, "Found you! You could have told me we were playing hide and seek. Geez…" He said slouching over to the couch and sitting down.

"Desoleil mon cher ami." Lily responded in clear French.

"French…pfft." Sirius said grumpily."

"D'you guys know of a group or organization called the Order of the Phoenix?" Lily asked nonchalantly. But then the whole atmosphere in the room changed. Sirius looked up quickly his face masked in a whirl of emotions and James watched her carefully before responding.

"To some extent. Why?" James asked.

"Well I spose it concerns why I arrived here a bit frazzled looking. I heard these guys following me on my way here so I hid in an alley, invisible of course. They came down the alley snooping around and then they started saying a bunch of stuff." Lily said twirling a piece of her hair between her fingers.

"What did they say?" Sirius asked his demeanor totally changed looking at her raptly.

"I dunno…they actually mentioned my name and said how they had found the girl "he" had been looking for. The two men said that I had probably already been recruited to the Order of the Phoenix by Dumbledore." Lily said glancing sharply at the two of them when they shared a glance of shared understanding and recognition.

"So you do know what they were talking about. Spill then." Lily said putting her hands on her hips looking from between Sirius and James who seemed to be communicating without words.

"Before we tell you anything it might be something totally different. Did you get a glance of the men who followed you?" James asked taking off his glasses and wiping them on the hem of his shirt.

"Yeah actually I did…there was one who had long blonde hair and the coldest gray eyes I've ever seen. The

other man I don't quite remember but they were both called Agustus and Luscius I think." Lily said keeping her face plain but her eyes focused on James and Sirius. She could definitely tell what she just revealed to them meant something because Sirius raised his eyebrows at James as if asking him what he thought.

"Interesting." Was all James uttered.

"Good to see you Lily but I actually have to get going. I have a bit of work to get done tonight before tomorrow. I bid you two a good night and don't have too much fun while I'm away." Sirius said winking to her but sending James one last nonverbal message and then he was gone.

"Okay I'm kind of confused right now. If you don't mind I would like to know what exactly is going on here." Lily said starting to become irritated.

"I can't really say anything yet except that the men who followed you work for Voldemort." He spat out the last word as if it was a swear word.

Lily's eyes grew large when she heard the man who was searching for her was Voldemort. The most powerful Dark wizard in the world was after her. What did he want with her? Her respect for James grew as he out of the few actually uttered Voldemort's name.

"I want you to accompany me to a meeting. Would you?" James asked her looking quite tired.

"A meeting? To what association?" She asked already knowing the answer.

"The Order of the Phoenix. I think you would make a fine recruit and it would keep you safe from these men. There are risks that involve you with it obviously. Basically we fight against the dark forces and the destruction Voldemort is creating in our world." James said sinking into a chair.

Lily looked at him feeling somewhat nervous and scared from the night's events. This was a lot of unwanted information and proposals thrown at her.

"Maybe. I'll get back to you?" Lily asked him looking down at him.

"Sure. The meeting is on Wednesday so I can swing around to get you if you choose to go. Just send an owl to me. Sorry that this wasn't exactly the bash you thought it was going to be. Remus was actually feeling a bit under the weather and Peter just left before you came for he had some work to do." James said yawning slightly.

"It's okay. I probably wouldn't have been in the mood anyways." She said honestly looking at him smiling. He had made her feel better nevertheless and she felt safe with him. "I better get going."

"D'you want me to walk you home?" James asked.

"Nah apparating will do the job now. I'll talk to you before Wednesday to tell you whether I'm going to the meeting." Lily said while gathering her bag and slipping into her brown corduroy jacket.

James nodded and kissed her in a friendly way on the forehead and then Lily was gone. James looked at the space where she was and then crossed over and fell backwards on his couch sighing.

"What will she say when Dumbledore tells her he got me and Sirius to look for her? Will she think that's the only reason I picked her out at the Quidditch game." He asked himself breaking the silence in the room but causing even more questions to arise.

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A/N: Yay chapter 4 is up. I really like writing this story and I've been updating quite frequently! We're slowly entering into some plots and such. If you saw some say so in the review. And now onto my English devoir! Tootles.


	5. Encountering the Order

A/N: Thank you all to who reviewed! Not much to say except I'm on my spring break and am about to go away tomorrow so I decided to type up the chapter. Be grateful heh :)

Disclaimer: Jk Rowlings works.

Chapter 5 After the Quidditch Game

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The next few days Lily did a lot of thinking about the pros and cons of going into the association. It would be dangerous but hell she was already in danger since Voldemort was looking for her. She had come to the blunt truth that if Voldemort was after her sometime in the future he would end up getting her. 5 years, 10 years or even 15 but she had no doubt he would.

She was definitely leaning towards joining as she was wondering a lot about her purpose in life. Basically right now she was a young adult having a good time with her girlfriends and working at a little café but there had to more than that in life. She wanted something to look back at or her children to look back and be proud of Lily Evans. Perhaps this had been the very thing she had been looking for without really searching for it.

Looking at her watch in the darkness it read eleven thirty in the evening. Tomorrow was Wednesday and James was probably wondering whether she was intending on going to the meeting. Smiling goofily she decided to owl him this very moment. He was most likely up anyways so it wouldn't disturb him.

Grabbing a piece of spare parchment Lily quickly wrote a note saying she would come to the meeting with him and asking him to come around to get her. Tying the letter to her lovebird's leg she opened the window and let Delia out into the night with the stars shining like lost gems in the clouding night.

Lily conjured a glass of water and sank into her futon couch closing her eyes and laying like that for a while. Julia had gone to bed earlier to get her beauty sleep for the night. She was auditioning the next morning for a Muggle movie and she wanted to look her best.

Lily heard a tapping noise on her window and was surprised to see Delia already there along with a note. She jumped up off the futon and opened up the window letting Delia in. Untying the note she unraveled it and read the scrawl at the bottom of it:

_Are you insane? It's bloody midnight! I was just getting my beauty sleep at James flat here and what do I see but a little lovebird. I thought I was having hallucinations from the lack of sleep because who has lovebirds as messengers? Geeesh I'm back to bed. What a waste of time this was. Sirius_

Lily began to laugh as she finished the note from the deranged Sirius, she could picture him gaping at little Delia. Lovebirds fared just as well as owls did when it came to communicating. Lily began to write Sirius back when there was another tapping on the window and she looked up to see a beautiful snow-white owl with dark blue eyes.

Hurrying over to the window she opened it up and saw a note in the birds beak and she carefully took it. It read:

_Lily!_

_Your letter unfortunately went to Sirius first and let me tell you he's never really in the best moods in the late evenings so don't listen to what he said while he was in his cranky Sirius mode. I'm glad your coming to the meeting and I wanted to invite you to my Quidditch game afterwards. Sad to say we're not playing Ireland but Bulgaria this time. Oh and lovebirds are smashing. –James_

Lily smiled at when he had said he wasn't playing Ireland but Bulgaria this time. She was definitely going to the game. She quickly scribbled a note back to James saying she would go to the game. Turning to the note Sirius had written she merely wrote on it, _I love you too Sirius_.

Handing the two notes to the owl she opened the window and let the owl go away in to the night until she could only see a little white pinprick in the distance. Closing it up she dragged herself to her bedroom finally feeling the tiredness seep through her. Falling onto her bed she flicked her wand causing the light to diminish and she fell asleep immediately, the darkness awaiting her.

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Lily shifted onto her bed pulling her blanket over her head more. She could hear voices murmuring in her room. Julia knew better than to talk that loudly in the morning when Lily was sleeping. They had gotten into countless fights over it. Turning over she opened one eye still blurred with wonderful morningness and then the other popped open. James was in her bedroom talking with Julia.

"James?" Lily groaned out pulling the Eeyore comforter around her tighter so he wouldn't see the lack of material on her body.

"Oh hey Lily, um you must've forgot about the meeting and all but it starts in like 20 minutes and Moody likes it when new members are punctual." James said leaning against her wall looking around interestedly. The room was a natural mess with clothes strewn all over the floor.

He leaned over and Lily thought he was tying his shoes or something but then his voice filled with amusement said, "A C 34, not bad."

Lily blushed deeply and said, "James! I think I'll go get ready now thanks. Don't have too much fun waiting in my room while I'm gone." She said grabbing her robe and pulling it around her securely as she gave him a good shove on her way out.

Lily ran into the hallway heading towards the bathroom and Julia blocked her way. "I can't believe he just said that!" Julia said erupting into girlish giggles, her face into a creamy mask as she was using all the beautifying tricks before her audition.

"You were eavesdropping!" Lily asked indignantly grabbing a piece of whole wheat toast Julia had made that morning.

"Of course. He's only the hottest Quidditch player ever." Julia replied winking at Lily.

"Hey, James has a Quidditch game after our little breakfast, come okay?" Lily asked feeling slightly bad for lying to her friend but she didn't think it would be good to let too many people know about the Order specially when she hadn't even gone to see what it was like for herself.

"Sure Lilybunny." Julia said blowing her a kiss.

Lily ran into the bathroom remembering he was in her room alone and she thanked the heavens she had showered the evening before. Waving her wand at her tangled hair it immediately became smooth and wavy. Slipping into a pair of pink pants she pulled over a thick knitted brown sweater accenting her features making her emerald eyes stand out.

Slipping into her clogs she jogged down to her room and entered the room just in time to hear James say incredulously, "What a loony donkey. Who in their right mind would buy a blanket with a purple donkey grimacing on it?"

She looked at him studying her beloved blanket and said, "Talking to yourself James? Never knew my room had this affect on people. Oh and his name is Eeyore and he's very popular in the Muggle world."

James muttered something that sounded like "muggles."

"Well lets get going then. I'm ready." Lily said smiling brightly.

"Finally, took you long enough." He said as they made their way out of the house and down to an alley where they could apparate.

"Psh that was very good time for me considering I was rudely awoken at the last minute." Lily said tossing her head of hair over her shoulder.

"Yeah yeah yeah, you should've been awake." James said rolling his eyes.

"I was awake. I was slowly getting up." Lily shot back.

"Whatever." James said rolling his eyes once again and then taking her hand suddenly.

Lily looked up to him blushing and then mentally hit herself. They were apparating, and here she was getting all excited. Yeesh.

The two of them experienced that familiar very uncomfortable feeling of being squeezed through a tight tube and then they were in front of a rather odd looking house. It was a bungalow type and it seemed to be the only house around. Lily looked around and saw that fields surrounded them and nothing else.

"Well let's head in shall we?" James asked and for some reason he sounded nervous.

"Sure." Lily said easily.

James walked up to the door and tapped the door a few times intricately with his wand and then waited a moment. Lily heard a tapping from the other side of the door and it seemed James replied with 5 shorts taps.

The door sounded as if it was being unlocked as Lily heard scraping sounds behind and then it was opened. The man on the other side was rather peculiar looking man. He had small dark beady eyes and his whole face was scarred looking, he was rather alarming looking.

"Bout time you got here Potter. The meeting's about to start." The man glared at James and Lily felt her cheeks becoming flushed since it was her fault they were late getting here.

"We're not late until the meeting starts Moody." James said good naturally grinning at him.

"Ah but who is this you've got with you? Wouldn't want any spies coming in here. Real good lookout we would be then." Moody said looking at Lily.

Lily smiled at him and said, "I'm Lily Evans sir. Nice to meet you."

Moody looked at her again his features somewhat softening as his face relaxed into a smile. "Ah of course. Come along then I'll introduce you to some folks." Moody said to Lily nodding her to follow him. Lily looked at James raised an eyebrow, smiled and then followed Moody.

Lily walked in with Moody and tried to store all the people she had met in her memory so she wouldn't forget later on. The Order had about 15 people recruited. She met a lady she knew only by sight from the Daily Prophet, Emmeline Vance, the Longbottoms, and the Prewetts. Lily thanked Moody for introducing her and then looked around to where James was sitting and headed over to where he was with two other men.

"Ah here she is. Mates this is Lily Evans. Lily these two odd fellows are Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew." James said nodding his head to a tall man with sandy brown hair that had a few sprigs of gray surprisingly. He must have quite the stressful job if he had grays already. The man named Peter was a shorter and rounder man with flat brown hair and watery eyes. Lily smiled at them kindly and shook their hands.

"Where's Sirius off to mate?" Remus asked leaning back into his chair.

"Looking for me?" A recognizable voice came from behind Lily and she turned grinning taking in his disheveled look.

"Did you get a good nights sleep?" She asked him innocently.

"Harhar, it was quite horrible actually after that thing you call your messenger started squeaking in my room." Sirius said moodily shaking his hair out of his face.

There was sound at the front of the room and Lily looked up to see an odd looking older wizard. He had long white hair tucked in his belt and he was wearing deep navy robes with stars speckling it. His light blue eyes were twinkling beneath the half moon glasses and he had a very kind look.

"That's Dumbledore." James whispered in Lily's ear.

Dumbledore. Of course, it seemed very evident that a man like Dumbledore would be in an organization like this fighting against Voldemort. She had done a research paper about Dumbledore awhile back in Beauxbatons and learned that he was probably the only wizard Voldemort was truly afraid of. It was very comforting that he was on their side.

"It has come to my knowledge that Voldemort has a group of discreet and powerful wizards on his side. They are called the Death Eaters. I have names of a few already and I am in need of a pair to go in behind and spy around. Moody will fill you in right now about what specifically you'll be doing." Dumbledore said looking around the room.

At that exact moment Lily looked at James to see that he was looking at her. They made a non-verbal agreement to be the two to go on this 'mission' James raised his hand in the air and Dumbledore looked at him a smile alighting his face.

"Ah James, and who will be your partner?"

"Lily Evans." James said pulling a hand through his hair looking up at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore bowed and said, "Pleasure to have you on board Ms Evans." Lily nodded at him smiling and followed James out of the room to where Moody was.

"So you two are going to do this then eh? Don't get mushy during it. Keep it serious." Moody said gruffly and Lily could feel heat creep up her neck and she had to refrain from laughing.

"We need you to go to this pub in Knockturn Alley, it's called Dark Spotters. The plan is to sneak around there and get information. Make sure before you go that you make yourselves unrecognizable so they'll think you're just some random people off the street. Here's the address to get there." Moody said handing Lily a slip of paper and she took it and slipped it into her purse.

"Thanks Moody, we'll be on our way since I have a game to head to now anyways. We'll check on you after we finish it. I'm guessing we'll head to the bar this Friday evening and try to weed them out." James said nodding to Moody and then heading out the door with Lily locking it on their way out.

"This'll be interesting." Lily said thinking about their little mission.

"Yeah should be. Lets get going then." James said taking a hold of her hand and then they were gone. Lily opened her eyes and saw that they were at the entrance of the pitch and stadium.

"I'll be seeing you later than. My teams waiting for me." James said still holding on her hand.

Lily smiled at him flirtatiously and said, "I'll be rooting for Bulgaria…I mean England."

James pretended to look downcast and then Lily kissed him on the cheek. "Don't be silly. I guess I'll be waving an England flag this game anyways!"

Lily ran off and kept her eyes peeled for her brown hair friend and then spotted her in the seating in the middle. Lily bounced over to her and sat down next to her smiling. "Whatchoo grinning about so much?" Julia asked suspiciously looking at Lily.

"Nothing, is it illegal to smile?" Lily asked pinching Julia's face.

"Lileeeeeeeeee!" Julia screeched out rubbing her face.

"Oh stop whining, it's very unbecoming of you." Lily said laughing.

The stadium was soon full and Lily looked out to the pitch and saw that the two teams were already on. James eyes connected with her for the briefest moment and then he turned away to concentrate on the game. Lily's eyes widened as she watched Bulgaria almost dominate the game for the first half hour. They had a very strong Keeper and good Beaters even challenging the legendary Chasers of England.

"Go James!" Julia yelled out loudly and Lily once again felt the need to shrink away at the loudness of her friend in public areas.

"That's supposed to be my line missy." Lily said pretend glaring at Julia.

"You would never." Julia said rolling her eyes and waving the England flag.

Lily felt her eyes wander around the stadium studying people which was rather selfish of her since she was supposed to be watching every single "brilliant" move of James but instead she was looking around. She heard in the background the Commentator yelling about how James had set up an extraordinary move and they had gotten their points for it finally.

Lily looked up an aisle and her eyes fell on a horrifying sight. There sitting nonchalantly in between crazed fans was none other than Luscius Malfoy and he was raising his wand. Lily having the gift of reading lips looked at the incantation he was about to udder and saw that it began with Avada-

"JAMES! JAMES MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!" Lily yelled at the top her lungs fearfully watching as a stream of bright green light erupted from Luscius's wand.

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A/N: Oho and it's a cliffie. My first one I think? So anyways here's dear Lily's beginning with the Order. Her mission with James to go to a sleezy pub will most likely be in next chapter along with images of Lisa. Review my darlings.

Edited


	6. Scary Ordeals and Witches

A/N: Thank you SO much for the reviews. I loved them all and it gave me a boost to get this next chapter written out quicker. I'll talk more after the chapter's typed.

Disclaimer: It's all JK Rowlings…

Chapter 6

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Both Quidditch teams kept playing thinking that it was some crazed fangirl of James yelling for him. The commentator didn't even say anything but James turned around for he had recognized Lily's voice but didn't get away in time. Lily looked with her mouth wide open as the green light hit James into the chest. His eyes had a surprised look to them as he lost control of the broom and he pummeled to the ground.

Lily watched as players from James team flew down to the ground to try and catch him and then instinct finally kicking in Lily whipped out her wand and twisted it violently. James broom slowed down but still hit the ground with a sickening thud, dust curling up around his unmoving body.

The rumble of panicked voices and screams began to fill the air until everyone had gone completely ballistic. People all around Lily scrambled up from the seats shoving and pushing desperately trying to get out of the stadium for there was a skull in the sky with a snake protruding from it's evil mouth. The Dark Mark representing a Death Eater being at works nearby.

Lily glanced up and down the rows trying to format some kind of plan to get her down to the pitch. She needed to see James to see that it couldn't be true. A fierce twist pulled deep inside her and she slid sideways out of her isle only to come face to face with Luscius Malfoy.

"How I've wanted to meet you Ms Evans. A pleasure." He said his face twisting into a cold smirk, his gray eyes boring deep into Lily's probing her secrets.

Lily tore her eyes from his and hissed in a shaky voice, "You son of a bitch."

"Don't befoul your mouth with such vulgar words darling. He shouldn't be dead, just half alive. Not that I didn't want him to be dead but the Dark Lord doesn't want him dead yet. Surprising, I would want him gone firstly." Luscius said with a cruel laugh.

A small bundle of hope flashed inside of her but she quickly diminished it, not wanting the heartbreak if it wasn't true. Lily glared at him and opened her mouth to curse him even more but he beat it to her, "Now let it be known to you that the Dark Lord wants your talent on his side. Know that if you refuse people around you will be in danger." And then he apparated in front of her causing her to stamp her foot in frustration.

Lily began to run through the crowds of people, shoving them aside as she stumbled over some not quite remembering if she apologized. Lily finally got to the ledge and leaped down before any of the extra security Auror's could stop her she landed on the pitch.

Looking wildly around she immediately saw where James limp body was laying, motionless. Lily ran over to him pushing in through the little crowd of the Bulagaria team who were speaking in heavily accented tongues and the England team who were talking anxiously with the Healers.

Lily felt an eruption that had been waiting to come out since she saw Luscius utter that disastrous curse and she felt a few salty tears rolled down her face staining them with moisture. She choked back a sob and ignored the Coach who was looking at her as if she was crazy.

"No." Lily whispered out hoarsely as she looked at his emotionless face and closed eyes.

She let out a real sob and laid her head on his unmoving chest, her tears dampening James Quidditch robes. Lily lay there but then felt a hand stroking her head very lightly. Her heart seemed to freeze right in its spot as she slowly looked up to see the unmistakable pained hazel eyes of James.

James hand came up and he rubbed the tears away from her face looking at her with a different emotion set in his eyes. A tear leaked out of Lily's eye and she opened her mouth to say something but he beat her to it.

"What'd you think, I died on you?" James asked breaking into a grin though he slightly grimaced as he pushed him up with difficulty. Lily gave a cross between a sob and laugh as she felt the relief break like a dam through her. He was okay; he was still there with them, with her.

"I thought you were dead, what did you expect me to think when that slimeball sent that horrible curse at you?" Lily asked in a shaky voice taking the hand he offered her and stood up wiping her face.

"Quidditch team members are always placed under heavily protected spells. It just so happens Dumbledore put one on me a well awhile ago, though it does save me from death no doubt my body will be smarting for a few days." James told Lily in a low voice.

"Thank God." Lily said, her respect for Dumbledore growing larger.

"Maybe you should go find Julia. I'm going to have to talk with these Healers and my coaches and stuff before I can leave. They'll have a hay day if I don't at least stay for a few minutes so they can give me a good check up. The reporters will go nuts, as they have just witnessed an attempted murder on a Quidditch player so of course I'm going to have to play the story up that this guy sent that curse my way because he was jealous or something. I'll come and find you afterwards. Shouldn't take too long." James said tiredly.

"Okay. Don't forget." Lily said as she smoothed her hair over anxiously feeling her nerves slowly leveling down.

"I won't." James said and then he headed over to the crows of wizards watching him with wide eyes. They all burst into conversation and began questioning James when one of the bolder Healer's grabbed him and shoved him into a chair before stuffing a piece of chocolate in his mouth.

Lily looked up and around at the stadium and squinted her eyes looking through the hordes of people. Her eyes fell on the spot where Luscius had been sitting. Of course, he had apparated immediately after he had exchanged words with her.

She let out a sigh and then looked around for the bright blue sweater Julia had put on that morning. Lily squinted her eyes sorting through the dozens of people remaining in the stands and then caught the sight of the red cap pulled over Julia's head in support for England.

Breathing a sigh of relief that Julia hadn't been trampled Lily ran up to the stands to find that Julia was anxiously awaiting her as well. "He's okay." Lily said and that's all she needed to say. Julia's face softened and she let out a shaky smile.

"Some Quidditch game eh? I tried to follow you but a crazy stampede of people blocked the way." Julia said as she tucked a piece of Lily's hair behind her ear.

"It's all good." Lily said in a tired voice.

"Yeah they went pretty ballistic." Julia said stepping away from Lily looking at her.

"I'm not surprised." Lily said shuddering at the thought of James being dead.

"Here he comes. I'm gonna leave you two so you can talk okay? I'll be back at the flat tonight and we'll talk." Julia said squeezing Lily's hand and then apparating.

"It's all good. I just escaped from the Healers so we should get out of here before they decide I'm not okay. And of course before the deranged reporters ask me some more idiotic questions. Jeez the things they come up with." James said grinning slightly.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked looking up at him, concern etched in her face.

"Yeah. Just sore." James said sincerely.

"Let's go to my flat for the afternoon. None of those deranged reporters will find us there and we can have some lunch." Lily said grimacing at the few people in the distance with those big wizarding cameras clutched in their hands and the flashes emitting from the cameras.

"Right on." James said grinning as he turned to see what Lily was frowning at. Lily took a hold of James hand and then they apparated to her flat appearing right into her sitting room. James collapsed on the recliner with a thump and Lily slid onto the couch.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes letting the excitement from the pitch die down a bit. Lily looked over to James and saw the look of concentration on his face. She decided to go make them some sandwiches for lunch. Lily crossed the room and entered the tiny kitchen and got out some ingredients.

She heard a shout of something come from the sitting room and she popped in there again to see James watching her TV screen with an incredulous look and glee on his face. Lily laughed as she returned to the kitchen knowing that would keep him entertained. All of her pureblood friends from Beauxbatons would always have fun with TV. Who could not like television even if you weren't brought up with it?

Lily poured two tall glasses of water and then came back into the sitting room to see James watching some football. He looked quite interested in it actually. Lily laughed and handed him his glass of water before sitting down on the couch with him.

"Having fun?" She asked him taking in his look of glee.

"This is wicked. What is this whole contraption thing?" James asked her with a confused look on his face as he gestured to the TV.

"You wizards are so deprived from the magnificent wonders of television-"

James interrupted her "emotion filled" segment about it and said, "Yeah yeah get to the point."

Lily mock glared at him and said, "Fine. That there is a television and what you have heard by now it's a brilliant muggle invention. It broadcasts shows on it at different times of the day. Coincidentally you are on the sports channel."

"I see. I am definitely purchasing one of these elecktonics." James said knowledgably nodding his head."

"It's electronics dear." Lily said in a comforting way smirking at him.

The two of them watched football and both got quite into it. By the end of the second half Lily and James were both yelling at the television hoarsely. James didn't really know the rules to the game that well but he was still already quite passionate about the game.

"That's offside you barmy old codger!" Lily yelled at the television shaking her hand.

"Barmy old codger? Where'd that come from?" James asked but then shut his mouth when he saw the look Lily shot him. The two teams were England and Argentina playing and Argentina was up by one. Argentina had a really extraordinary goalie and defense so it was hard to get through.

James suddenly looked up and said, "What time is it?" Lily looked up at her wristwatch and it read 4:36 in the afternoon. Geesh what an eventful day! Her first Order meeting and then the Quidditch game where James was almost murdered. Good lord!

"D'you have to go?" Lily asked as she watched him stand up and stretch out his pained muscles. "Yeah I totally forgot, my parents wanted to get together with me in like 20 minutes. But don't forget about our detective work this Friday. You're going to have to make yourself unrecognizable. I'll be around to pick you up at 8 ish." James said smiling at her with his hazel eyes.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Lily asked looking up at him with slightly worried eyes. "I mean we could always do our little detective work another evening."

"Nah I'm good, we need to get this done. Thanks for not freaking out at the Quidditch game." James said quietly pulling a hand through his hair. Lily smiled at him and then pushed him out to the front entrance.

"I'll see you then." James said and then he kissed her on the cheek in a friendly way but Lily didn't see the look in his eyes. James opened the door and then closed it waving her goodbye. Lily went back into her sitting room and slunk down onto her futon closing her eyes. It had been pretty unnerving to see James on the ground not moving earlier. Was this what she was playing into by being accepted into the Order?

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Elissa spread open the Daily Prophet the next morning. She didn't read the Prophet on a daily basis but for some reason this morning she had an urge to go out and buy it. Her brown eyes widened as she saw who was on the front page. A blown up picture of Lily kissing James on the cheek in a more secluded woods was in black and white.

"Oh shit." Elissa said looking at the widely stretched article. It read:

_James Potter, a new girlfriend?_

_As we have already seen a glimpse of a girlfriend of James Potter I can say we can confirm this sadly to all those admirers out there. This picture shows the evidence of him having someone special and we have her name! Lily Evans and for all of you who don't know her (you probably wouldn't) she went to Beauxbatons. With me as well! She was rather…charming. I just hope James doesn't get his heart broken by her as I've witnessed it before. We're going to have to watch out for everyone's favorite Quidditch player! More on page 6, 9. _

_Lisa Spangeil_

"She had got to be kidding, Lily broke someone's heart in Beauxbatons? That's bullshit as I've never heard before. It wasn't Lily's fault that Lisa's boyfriend saw Lily and then totally lusted over her. Definitely not Lily's fault that Lisa's boyfriend tried to put the moves on Lily.

"She's just jealous from that long ago. How mature." Elissa muttered darkly flipping back her blonde hair and tying it into a ponytail.

Elissa got up from the table and folded the newspaper up and put it into her purse. She had better get over to Lily's flat and give her a heads up on this article for she was sure that Lily didn't get these delivered to her flat. Scowling at the article Elissa pulled on a navy sweater and then headed into her sitting room was so she could floo over to Lily's.

Stepping into the grate Elissa pinched a bit of the green powder into between her fingers and then dropped it in the fireplace yelling, "Lily's flat!"

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Lily drank her orange juice tiredly. She hadn't gotten that much sleep the evening before as her night was corrupted with menacing nightmares that shook her awake sweating and tangled into the sheets. Not having enough sleep didn't agree with Lily either, she was pale and there was dark circles under her eyes.

Taking a bite of her toast Lily put a hand underneath her chin and looked into space for awhile. All of a sudden she heard a loud thump in her sitting room and then heard someone coughing. Lily stood up immediately all awareness on, her wand out ready in her left hand. Walking quietly she entered the sitting room and then saw that it was Elissa.

Elissa looked at Lily with a surprised expression on her pretty face, seeing Lily look so rugged but alert with her wand in her hand pointing at Elissa.

"Think I was some intruder eh Lil?" Elissa asked stepping over to where Lily was and giving her a tight hug looking her into the eyes.

"You okay?" Elissa asked with concerned eyes hoping that Lily hadn't already seen the paper that morning.

"I'm fine. Just a bit tired though." Lily said sincerely smiling at her friend that she hadn't seen in quite a while.

"Well sit down for a bit. I've something to show you and Julia. Let me go get her." Elissa said pushing Lily into the chair with a smile and then walking off into the hall to get Julia. Soon she was back with Julia who had just gotten out of the shower. Her hair was up in a towel and a bathrobe was wound around her.

"What's so important that you made me get out of the shower?" Julia asked rolling her eyes playfully at Elissa.

Elissa didn't respond but pulled out the newspaper and handed it to Lily with a serious look on her face. Julia walked over to Lily with a curious look on her face and slid onto the couch with her to read the article. Lily's eyes narrowed as her eyes slid over the short segment on the front page and the picture.

"What a nasty little liar that witch is." Lily said staring at the newspaper vehemently.

"Aw that's my innocent Lily not letting a swearword befoul her pretty little lips." Julia said grinning.

"Shut the hell up." Lily said crankily.

"Lilybunny!" Julia whined holding a hand to her mouth in pretend shock.

"Stop whining Jul. You'd be pretty ticked off if you just found out that Lisa wrote up this idiotic article about you and James while stating that you were a player and would most likely break James heart. So basically now the world is going to send me hate mail." Lily said darkly.

"If she says anything bad about our Lily, Julia and I'll go have a word with her. And I'm sure James would as well." Elissa said winking at Julia but keeping an eye on her friend.

"How reassuring." Lily said sarcastically but smiling a little. Lily told the girls she was going to take a shower and she locked herself and slid down against the wall feeling slightly depressed. Lisa had found out about her, now the whole world knew who she was. Most likely she would be receiving some hate mail in the next 24 hours. Not to mention she was sick worried about James and the risks about this Order.

Oh well, I'll prove myself to the world and James when we get to this mission and get some information against those Death Eater's that work for Voldemort. We'll see what they say then. But Lily still felt a small tear slide down her face.

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A/N: I know I said I was going to put the mission up in this chapter but I felt I should cut it off there. But if you guys review a whole bunch you might see the next chapter pop up real soon in the next week. Thanks so much for the reviews so far. Poor Lily. Tootles.


	7. Trashy Bars and Sirius's brother?

A/N: Argh I am very aggravated with fanfiction at the moment. I tried to put this chapter up a while ago as you guys might have noticed but when I finally was able to get the document uploaded and updated it wasn't all there! Good grief, and I haven't had the chance to get this pup up until now. Desoleil! Thank you for the reviews though so far.

Disclaimer: JK Rowlings

Chapter 7 of After the Quidditch Game

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Surprisingly Lily hadn't received any hate mail yet. Of course there was a dorky note from Sirius who pretended to be James most number one lover and how he hated Lily for taking James from him but she hadn't heard anything else about the 'Lisa ordeal'. Lily was quite surprised at that as well but hey she was fine with that if nobody wanted to send her hate mail.

Lily thumbed through her wardrobe and then sank into her futon laughing slightly. She had thought about the whole situation a lot and she was feeling more confident and calmer. It was already Friday and she was trying to find something 'sleazy' to wear to the bar that evening when she went with James.

Moody had told her to make herself look unrecognizable and since it was a bar and she was trying to get information from the Death Eaters she figured a bit of sex appeal wouldn't hurt.

Lily pushed herself off the futon and walked into her closet and pushed through the piles of jeans and shirts. No for the evening she would definitely want to wear a short skirt and a gold digging halter-top! Lily had already decided she would charm her eyes blue and hair black. She wondered what James was going to be wearing.

Lily sighed in frustration as she pushed through her clothes. They weren't what someone could call boring but they definitely weren't concealing and Lily definitely wouldn't fit the part if she ended up wearing a pair of jeans and a sweater. Nay this time she was going to have to go to Julia.

She walked down the hallway to where music was blasting and Julia was dancing around the room with just a pair of shorts and a chemise. Lily laughed and took the hands of Julia. Soon they were dancing all over the room laughing off the stress that had built up that week.

"You know what would be so much fun? If we brought James and his hot friend Sirius to the clubs with us the next time we go eh?" Julia squealed clapping her hands together as the light bulb went off into her head.

"Yeah that definitely sounds like a good idea though I'm guessing it isn't all revolving around me as I saw the way you were eyeing up Sirius as that Quidditch game when we first met him. Hey but Jul I need to tell you something important." Lily said turning playful to serious.

Julia looked at Lily and quirked an eyebrow as if urging her to begin. Lily took a deep breath and thought about what she was doing. She had decided to tell Julia about the Order since she was her best friend and all. And even if Julia seemed like an air bubbled ditz she was anything but! Julia was one of the most strongest people she had ever met and she always there for Lily during her dark times.

Lily opened her mouth and began to explain about the Order and how it came upon her that they wanted her to join. Julia was silent until Lily came to the part where James had invited her to the Order. Julia had a frown on her face and Lily figured that Julia had thought up of something.

"I'm definitely glad that you told me about this Lily but don't you find it suspicious that James randomly just invited you to an Order meeting even though it's top secret and it doesn't have many people in it since they are very suspicious? I mean he wouldn't have just recruited you because he liked you or something, because 1 that's a dangerous involvement for you and 2 he probably had a reason behind it for inviting you." Julia said puzzled as she rested her chin on the palm of her hand.

Lily looked at Julia and she started to see what Julia was indicating at that someone had maybe told him to come and find her? She looked at Julia and than shook her head cheerfully. "James wouldn't do that to me. He definitely wouldn't be leading me on all this time. If it had been me he would've have told me by now." (A/N: Or would he?)

"I hope you're right Lilybunny. I don't want you getting hurt by some stupid Quidditch player." Julia said seriously her blue eyes etched with thought and doubt.

"I don't think he would hurt me. Ah but the moment of time has come when I have come to you to borrow some sleazy clothing. A part of my proving my trust into the Order James and I are going to go undercover and try to collect come information. There is this trashy bar in Knockturn Alley and that's where I'm going this evening!" Lily said laughing at the quirk of Julia's eyes when she connected trust, information and a trashy bar.

"Eh? You're going to prove your trust by going to a bar?" Julia asked sarcastically and she shook her head in an exasperated way.

"Yeah yeah whatever. This guy in the Order gave us the whereabouts to where Death Eaters hang out and there is this little bar in Knockturn Alley that James and I are going this evening and I neeeeed some clothes!" Lily said flinging her hands out in a pleading sign.

Julia raised her eyebrows at Lily's begging and she just rolled her eyes and walked into her closet. 20 minutes later they had compiled a satisfactory outfit together. Lily and Julia were both looking in the long mirror smiling at Lily's reflection. Lily was wearing a tight black skirt that came right up to her mid thigh. She was wearing black hooker boots that came to her knees and she was wearing a slinky blue halter-top.

" Oh la la la! Well don't you look sleazy? Is this good enough for our little mission with James? James is gonna get a good slap in the face when he sees your wearing this. Make sure he doesn't get other ideas in mind eh." Julia said giggling as Lily turned to shove her.

"Har har." Lily said dryly.

"Stop imitating a bloody pirate Lily!" Julia said sticking her tongue out at her friend with a mischievous look in her eyes.

"Whatever, you know you love me." Lily said and than she spun out of the room dramatically. Julia whistled enthusiastically at Lily's newfound strut and than she closed her door so she could finish memorizing her lines for her upcoming musical she was performing in.

Lily shrugged out of the tight and a tad uncomfortable clothes and she slipped into a pair of sweatpants. Lily had thought that maybe before meeting up with James she would look at the information about the Death Eaters they knew of already that James had owled her that morning.

Pulling out a wrinkled piece of parchment Lily looked it over and read:

_Death Eater Suspects _

_Severus Snape: A young man in his twenties. We have reasons to believe that Snape is connected with Lord Voldemort as we have found him countless times in the company of suspected Death Eaters. Don't forget he's skilled at Occulmency so don't let him look into your secrets._

_Luscius Malfoy: A tall man with long white hair and cold gray eyes. We can pretty much confirm that he is indeed a Death Eater since we have caught him in action terrorizing muggles. Watch out for this prick as he is quite powerful and has learned the Dark Arts from Voldemort himself._

_Regulus Black: Not sure about this young fellow. He is under the suspecting list just from rumors passed in between the Order members. We have seen him conversing with other suspected Death Eaters_.

Lily shivered at the picture of Luscius and looked at the photo of Severus. He looks quite creepy actually with his black eyes and greasy looking hair she thought to herself. Luckily Lily had mastered Legilmency in Beauxbatons during an advanced class of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lily than turned her head and studied the picture of Regulus. Something about him looked oddly familiar though she couldn't quite place it.

Lily decided to go through the page of suspected Death Eater's so she might be able to recognize one at the bar tonight. Lily lowered herself onto her comfy futon and pulled the booklet of pages with her. Sleepiness slowly took her as she yawned her way through the reports on Death Eaters and the gathered information. The last image Lily had before she fell surrender to the slumber was the picture of Luscius on her mind. For some reason she felt that she hadn't seen the last of him yet.

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"She's sleeping again!" James voice floated into Lily's opened door.

Lily moaned into her sleep and she shifted onto the other side. She heard footsteps coming down the hall and all of a sudden she quickly got up frantically combing her hair pulled on the black skirt and halter-top. Lily looked around and then grabbed the shoes and hopped around the room trying to get them on. Lily looked into the small compact mirror and grimaced. She pulled out her trusty wand and waved it over her face reapplying the makeup that had been slightly smudged.

"Erm yeah I think so…Lily likes her sleep! Just go into her room and wake her. I have lines to memorize!" Came Julia's annoyingly cheerful voice and Lily could hear that they were just outside of her door.

Lily heard James snort slightly and she could hear him padding down the hallway. Looking into the mirror one last time she pulled on a black jacket that went with her skirt and fastened in some big silver hoops in her ears. James pushed the door open and when he caught sight of Lily his mouth dropped open slightly as he took in her appearance.

And Lily did look quite hot as one would say. With her short black skirt, black hooker boots and the slinky blue halter-top she showed off what she had just right. Her newly charmed black hair was in a high silky black ponytail on the back of her head and her blue eyes were glowing. Lily smiled at James charmingly and walked up to him and put a hand on his chest and said, "You look quite good yourself Mister Potter."

James gulped softly as he watched her saunter out of the room. He indeed was adorned in the appropriate clothes. James was wearing a pair of dark denim pants and a dark green muscle shirt that matched his newly charmed green eyes. His hair was a dark brown flippy hairstyle and he was wearing a leather jacket to finish off the new look.

Lily laughed in the hallway slightly and she blew a kiss to Julia who was in her room finishing the last tedious booklet of lines she would need to know. Lily grabbed her wand and a small blue handbag that had some wizarding money in it. She looked up to see James exit her room and he walked towards with an unreadable look on his face.

"You look pretty good with black hair but I definitely prefer the red hair any day." James said simply before taking her hand and than they apparated into the night.

Lily and James appeared into a dark alleyway and she was about to cross the small street over to the Dark Spotter's but James grabbed her arm.

"We need to make a rough plan just in case anything goes wrong. If we do manage to get into a spot of trouble with anyone apparate immediately. I'm going to give you this tube of lipstick that Dumbledore has put a powerful charm on. If you know it is time to go I want you to rub it in your pocket to apparate. I will than feel it or you will and it will heat up in your pocket. Lets plan to go to your flat and then I'll be on my way." James said seriously looking her straight in the eye.

Lily nodded and he handed her the pink tube of unsuspecting lipstick. Once again Lily's confidence in Dumbledore rose yet again. He was an amazing wizard and she was ever so grateful he was on their side.

"Sounds like quite the plan. Lets get going then." Lily said nodding to the cavern type bar named Dark Spotters.

James took Lily's hand and they walked into the Dark Spotter's.

"If they're the men I know they will approach you sometime tonight. Don't go anywhere with them alone. You don't know what they are capable of." James said squeezing her hand and they entered into the bar.

The bar gave off an air of suspiciousness and somewhat treachery. Lily wrinkled her nose at the greasy barkeeper who was handing off the dozens of drinks to what looked like vampires! Lily felt her insides wrinkle and she looked up at James her eyes wide. He nodded reassuringly at her a smile coming up on his handsome face.

"I'm going to go play some pool with those chaps over there. You'll be okay? The vampires won't touch you here." James said grinning at her and than he walked over to the pool table with a swagger. Lily let out a nervous giggle and then decided to go and sit by an unsuspicious man sitting in a little bit way from the vampires.

Lily sat down and felt the vampires looking her up. One even had the nerve to lick his lips hungrily touching the top of his mouth in an indecent way. Lily snorted at them and tossed her head. The man next to her let out a laugh and he extended a hand to her, "Regulus and who might this risky lady be?"

Lily felt something in her stomach drop as she recognized this man as the one on the suspect list of her papers of Death Eaters. She let out a dazzling smile and said flirtatiously, "It's Jessica, oh but why would you say risky?" She asked dumbly as she batted her eyelashes at him.

She could see that Regulus was taken by this attention because he said, "Dark Spotter's isn't for pretty little ladies like you. Not the nicest joint of town if you get what I'm saying."

"Oh but why would you say that?" Lily asked as she shook her hand at the barkeeper for a beer. Regulus took a swig from his beer and grinned at her handsomely. He was quite handsome with his dark hair and eyes. Very composed young man and by the looks of things he probably was one or two years younger than she.

"You get all kinds of characters coming here. Just look at those prats over there drooling over you." Regulus said sneeringly his white teeth showing.

Lily let out a girlish laugh and said, "Regulus! That wasn't very nice."

"If I was them I would be doing the same except I wouldn't want to be them since I'm in a much better situation. How bout we dance?" Regulus asked but he more like pulled her hand and leaded her out to the small dance floor. Lily looked around and she saw James playing pool and chatting it up with some rogues over there.

Regulus stopped and pulled her tightly close to him. Lily could smell the beer coming off his breath and she could see James out of the corner of her eye glaring at the two. Lily grimaced at the sudden closeness but decided this was for the Order so she might as well deal with it.

"So do bad boys come here then?" She whispered into his ear huskily.

"All kinds. Don't suppose a girl like you have heard about Death Eaters? Well it just so happens your dancing with one of those bad boys right now." Regulus said swaying with her his hands traveling down farther than she liked.

Gritting her teeth she said in a faked impressed voice, "Regulus that's so dangerous."

"Oh but I even do more. I pass information from inside the Ministry to the Dark Lord himself." Regulus said in a bragging voice as if he possessed the most important jobs of them all.

"Regulus!" Lily said in a shocked voice. Inside she felt like clubbing herself over the head for acting like such an airhead but it was part of the disguise.

"Yeah a few days ago my good pal Luscius and I got in a close fix. We were spose to have kidnapped this girl named Lily Evans but she's not the easiest to track. I asked the Dark Lord why we needed her but never do that." Regulus said shuddering at the mere memory of the punishment he had served.

Lily felt herself grown cold at the mention of how Regulus and Luscius had tried to kidnap her. Regulus must have noticed her growing cold because he drew her closer and he began to kiss her neck. Lily's eyes grew large and she pulled away from him and said, "I'm going to get a drink. You stay out of trouble."

Lily reached into her pocket and squeezed the tube of lipstick and then she was enduring the uncomfortable sensations of being squeezed through a tight tube. Lily gasped as she fell forwards into her living room and she quickly waved her wand and transfigured her clothes into a pair of sweatpants and an oversized shirt.

James followed shortly after and he looked at her and than grabbed her tightly. "What'd he do to you?"

"Nothing he didn't touch me or anything." Lily said not looking James into the eyes.

"Didn't touch you? I saw how closely you two were dancing and then when he started to kiss you Lily!" James said in a frustrated voice.

Lily's eyes narrowed from her lack of sleep and she said in a slightly hysterical voice, "So you were watching us all that time? You didn't manage to gather any information because I sure did! And you know what he said? Him and Luscius tried to kidnap me James. They tried to kidnap me."

James eyes widened suddenly and Lily saw different emotions flitting beneath his now original hazel eyes. He pulled Lily into a tight hug and than he said slowly, "I guess I was just a bit jealous that he was holding you that way. There's another thing that somewhat complicates things Lily."

Lily pulled back from James embrace and she folded her arms together and tapped her foot expectantly looking at him. "D'you really know who Regulus Black is?" James asked her questioningly.

"No except he's quite the pervert when he's drunk." Lily said in an aggravated voice.

"Regulus Black is the brother of Sirius." James said and Lily's eyes widened at the truth.

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A/N: Ohh somewhat of a cliffie. Hehe not really but some stuff will be revealed in next chapter I think. I love the reviews guys, keep them coming! I'm very sorry I wasn't able to get this darned chapter up earlier but when Fanfiction is being stubborn ya know. I have dance exams soon so I've been studying and practicing loads not to mention a major French project. Anyways review to me. Ciao!


	8. Death and Memories

A/N: Hey my lovelies! It was awesome to see the reviews. You guys are pondering a lot about a certain revelation between James and Lily. There will be more of that in the next two or three chapters I think. I hope you all had a lovely Easter. Muah.

Disclaimer: JK Rowlings

Chapter 8 of After the Quidditch Game

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Lily looked at James incredibly but somehow knew that it was the truth he was speaking. She thought frantically and put all the pieces together. How could she have not seen the resemblance between Sirius and Regulus? She knew there had been something familiar about him but he was a Death Eater! And how did Sirius get tied in with such an…evil brother?

"This is crazy." Lily breathed out and she sank into her futon chair shaking her head. James observed her from where she was sitting. He couldn't lie to himself and say he wasn't worried about her. James knew she was strong but was she strong enough for this?

Lily felt James eyes on her and she looked up at him, her emerald eyes were looking soft with unshed tears. "So what happens now then?"

James looked at her and said, "I don't know. I'm gonna head home and owl Dumbledore immediately and tell him. Are you okay by yourself? I can stay if you want me to." He said anxiously.

Lily mustered a smile and said, "Nah I'm fine. Just a bit disturbing."

"I'll come get you tomorrow or something okay? We'll spend the day together if you want." James said looking at her and he smiled.

Lily nodded tiredly and then hugged James tightly before padding down to her room. Pushing the door open she fell onto her comfortable bed pulling the Eeyore blanket tightly around her body and then the tears began to come. She didn't know exactly why they were coming.

Perhaps it was her dreaded hormones from the approaching monthlies or it could be the disturbing fact that Sirius's brother was a Death Eater. Also that he revealed that him and Lucius had tried to kidnap her? She didn't know. Sleep soon took over her thoughts and questions and she fell in surrender to it.

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James yawned widely as he awoke the next morning to a tapping on his window. Bloody owl always came and disturbed his sleep to deliver the Daily Prophet. He didn't even know why he bothered subscribing for it. Actually scratch that he had never subscribed for it. They just sent it to him somehow.

James grumbled and opened the window up. The wizard newspaper fell in and he ran a hand through his hair and blinked his eyes a bit looking at the front page. There was a bit of rubbish about the psychotic bonding of marriage with none other than Luscius Malfoy and Narcissa Black. How lovely… James grimaced and was about to toss the newspaper aside but his eyes had caught a rectangular of an article about the death of a certain pureblood wizard.

James squinted his eyes and he felt his insides lurch forwards. Oh god it couldn't be. It was an unmistakable picture of Regulus Black and James quickly read the article, his eyes roved back and forth and once he had finished he glanced into space thinking wildly.

The article had stated that it was suspected murder. They had found the body of Regulus in an abandoned warehouse where it was alleged that activities of Lord Voldemort and Dark Magic had been experimented with. They declared that it was murder. 'His eyes held the glassy look of the most feared curse of Wizardkind' a healer without a name told the Ministry that morning. The family hasn't set a date for the funeral yet.

James brought his hand up to his forehead and thought rapidly. If the murder had been discovered just this morning how fast had the murder occurred the previous night? Him and Lily had gotten home about 9 50 pm since they hadn't stayed too long. What had Regulus done the rest of the night to be murdered a little afterwards the fact?

Was the murderer at the bar last night? James racked his brain but only remembered the queer vampires and the tough knocks he played some wizarding pool with. And the guys he had joined to play pool with could hardly have been the murderers. They just didn't seem like the smartest chaps on the block.

James paced the room and than he looked up quite suddenly thinking of one person and how he would be affected by this information. Sirius. What was his reaction going to be when he heard that his only brother had been murdered and that his parents were already gone anyways?

---------------------------------

Lily was brushing her long auburn hair when an owl banged into her window giving her quite the fright. She opened the window and the owl shimmied inside and hooted grumpily. Taking the note that it offered to her she read it.

_Lily something terrible has happened. _

_Regulus was murdered last night right after we left the bar. If you have the _

_Prophet the story is in there. Can you come over immediately to my flat?_

_-James_

_I haven't talked to Sirius yet._

Lily inhaled her breath sharply when she read that Regulus was dead. And the last line of his note caused even more lurches inside of her stomach. Oh gosh it couldn't be happening all right now could it? What would Sirius be like when he found out? Blood ties were for life no matter what.

She summoned the Daily Prophet that Julia had begun subscribing to. Her eyes narrowed at the marriage of the slimy git Lucius but she immediately caught the article cramped in the side about Regulus. He had died last night? How was that possible?

Lily ran to the bathroom and washed up quickly. Slipping into a pair of running pants and a loose shirt Lily quickly wrote a note to Julia explaining where she was going. Lily breathed in a deep breath and then prepared to apparate to James apartment.

Lily fell forward into James kitchen and she heard voices coming from his sitting room. Slipping off her shoes Lily walked into the room cautiously wondering whom she might find there. James turned to her and there was a helpless look in his eyes that Lily didn't comprehend until she saw Sirius sitting there reading the article. Remus was also there sitting down on James chair his fists clenched. He was looking very pale.

Sirius caught sight of her and tossed the newspaper aside with a venomous look but said to her in a faked cheery voice, "Hullo Lily! D'you have fun with James on your little mission last night?"

Lily felt her insides grow cold and she had the sense not to look at James when Sirius asked that. Obviously James hadn't told him they had seen Regulus there. She felt herself prickle with anger a bit at James for not telling him. What was he playing at?

"Oh it was fine y'know the usual scumbags who try and hit on you. We did see some pretty creepy vampires though." Lily said and she could feel James burning glance on her willing her not to say another word about it.

"Hey Padfoot, James and I are just going to get that muggle food we wanted you to try out and since it's nearing lunchtime I think we should go get it eh Prongs?" Remus asked and Lily's eyes rose at the nicknames they had for one another but didn't question it. Now was not the time.

"Oh yeah Padfoot you'll like it. With your big appetite I'm sure you could eat a whole one. Lets go Moony." James said and he looked at Lily with pleading eyes, not to tell Sirius about Regulus.

Lily rolled her eyes and nodded at them. If it had been anytime earlier than now Lily probably wouldn't have felt comfortable hanging around with Sirius by herself because she didn't know him much but she did now. She knew what he was going through at this moment even if his features weren't displaying the turmoil of emotions.

Remus and James left and then it was just Sirius and Lily lounging on the couches in James vast sitting room. Lily decided to say something to him, he needed to get some of those feelings out or he would go crazy. Biting her bottom lip in a nervous habit Lily said, "Look Sirius I'm really sorry to hear about your brother."

This simple phrase caused Sirius to change from calm to whirl around at Lily with his eyes blazing with fire. He snarled out in an angry voice clouded with emotion, "I don't have a brother!"

Unknowingly that brought back a painful memory to Lily. The memory knocked out her presence and brought it back to the past when she was fourteen at Beauxbatons when she had received a very life changing letter when life had been okay. This simple letter changed everything.

() () () () () () Flashback

Lily was sitting at the big crystal round tables in the Great Hall of Beauxbatons with a bunch of her school friends. It was noon and they were all digging into the delicacies that the Faeries had cooked up that morning. Grabbing the pitcher of water she poured herself some and sat back to listen to her friends gabble on about the cute new transfer student who had just arrived that morning.

"Oh did you see his physique?" Elissa demanded them in French a bit too loudly and then had the grace to blush when she saw the boy look over at them with risen eyebrows. The girls at the table burst into laughter and Elissa just smiled.

"Good job Elissa! Geesh now he's gonna be all scared of you, don't you remember what happened last time an exchange student came here?" Julia asked and shook her head but grinned at her friend.

"He was just shy!" Elissa said back and twirled her hair between her fingers dreamily thinking back to the boy she had somewhat scared off by her pushy demeanor.

Lily snorted at Elissa's response and was about to say something when a regal looking owl came flying towards their table. Owls usually never came to their dining area since their headmistress wouldn't allow. That must mean that whatever message the owl was bearing had to be important.

To Lily's surprise the owl landed in front of her and than offered her it's leg with the tight scroll. Lily took it and could feel the population of Beauxbatons staring at her as she unrolled it. Lifting her curious emerald eyes at the scroll she began to read it. Something cold gripped her heart as she read the note and then a single tear rolled down her face as she read the end of it. Dropping the note she ran from the dining area and she ran and ran.

She ran up to her room beginning to sob but she rummaged through her dormitory looking blindly for Elissa's broom. Taking it she pushed open the window. Before jumping out into the light air of spring she contemplated on what she was about to do. _Elissa will understand. I'm not sure if the headmistress and professors will but the hell with them _she thought vehemently.

Jumping onto the broom she fell out of her dormitory and into the blue sky near France. She quickly charmed herself invisible and then she was off zooming through the clouds over the large crystal like castle of Beauxbatons her heart racing with disbelief. It couldn't be true.

They couldn't be dead. She had just been there for Easter break and they had been fine. Salty tears fell down her face and she felt it blind her vision. The wind that was hitting her face seemed to slap her causing external pain. She cried out loudly knowing not many could hear her. She honestly didn't care. She needed to get there, to see for herself.

Swooping down through the thick dense clouds Lily saw that she was actually nearing Surrey. Thank God for Elissa's speed on this broom or she wouldn't even be halfway here. Lily flew down keeping her gaze on a certain red-bricked house but still didn't miss the horrifying sight a little down the road from her house. She felt bile rise up in her throat and she threw up violently crying as she did.

Throwing the invisible broomstick aside she lifted the invisibility off and ran down the street crying out to God asking him why. When she reached the rubble her parents were no place to be found. It happened yesterday. That's what the letter had read. Lily looked wildly around and then a persons name came to her mind, Petunia.

She ran down the sidewalk and located her childhood home. Lily ran up to it and grabbed the knob but found it wouldn't budge. She banged on it loudly. Footsteps could be heard and Lily felt a little hope rise in her heart. The door opened up and Lily let out a small gasp at the sight of her unusually unkempt sister. Her sister's blonde hair was in a greasy mess and her eyes had a sunken appearance to them.

Her sister had bad sight but refused to wear glasses or let Lily heal them. Therefore she squinted and said in a hoarse voice, "Who is it?"

Lily felt shocked that her sister hadn't at least recognized her at all so she said in a crumbling voice, "It's your sister Pet! Lily."

Petunia's eyes narrowed and her face took on a very mean look. She walked up to Lily and gave her a hard shove and said in shaking yet cruel voice, "I don't have a sister." And with that she swung around and slammed the door locking it tightly. That was the last time she had ever spoken to her sister.

OOOOOOO

Lily fell forward breathing harshly and to her embarrassment tears had begun to pool out of her eyes. She tightly closed them cursing herself for this happening now, she needed to be strong for Sirius.

"You don't mean that." Lily said thickly at what Sirius had said.

"Couldn't be more serious in my li- Lily what's wrong!" Sirius asked as he finally noticed her state as she was rapidly wiping away at her tears that were coming down.

"Oh Sirius what you just said about your brother reminded me of what my sister said to me 7 years ago. You and I, we're in the same boat I think when it comes to family." And Lily proceeded to tell Sirius about what had happened involving her parents death and what had happened when she had arrived at her old house.

"That was the last time I ever talked to her." Lily said sadly and Sirius looked at her sympathetically.

"My whole family was so deep in the Dark Arts and the pureblood nonsense and I hated them for that. We never got a long my brother and I because we both were so different. He was a follower and sucked up all the bullshit my father and mother fed him. I lost contact with him two years ago when he joined forces with Voldemort. We were both on separate sides. We almost always have been." Sirius said and he sunk his face into his hands. Lily slid over to him and tentatively put a hand on his back and rubbed it soothingly.

"I really am sorry about him though." Lily said and Sirius looked up at her with his red-rimmed eyes that still held in so many unshed tears.

"Me too, but only because the way he had to leave. I'm glad you told me about your parents. Sounds like you haven't talked about that much eh?" Sirius asked her hesitantly.

"No I daresay I haven't. After Petunia wouldn't let me in I just flew back to Beauxbatons. The girls were there and they didn't question my escapade. I went to the headmistress and told her honestly where I had been and she didn't ask any questions. They were all so good about it." Lily said and she rubbed the tear that trickled out of her eye.

Lily tentatively moved over to him where he was sitting on the wide couch and snuggled against him breathing in softly letting the flow of tears come down. Sirius brought a hand up and softly rubbed her head soothingly. Lily lay against him with her legs tucked in front of her and closed her eyes and squeezed Sirius's hand in thanks.

Before she drifted off into the welcoming arms of sleep she heard Sirius mutter quietly to himself, "I can see why he likes you so. An angel in disguise." Before Lily could ponder too much about this she was gone to the world and fell into a pattern of dreams all consisting of her parents, Regulus Black and terrifying flashes of bright green light.

Lily opened one of her eyes as she heard voices talking. Rubbing her eyes and cursing herself for her weakness at always falling asleep she got up and walked into the kitchen where James, Remus and Sirius were eating down a few boxes of pepperoni pizza.

"So you do like our muggle things then don't you?" Lily asked smirking slightly as she let her presence be known. James turned around at her and grinned at her handsomely and nodded. There was one box of vegetarian that surprised Lily very much so. Who was the vegetarian in this household?

Lily shook her head and then smiled inwardly at the pizza sauce on the corner of James mouth. She wiped it away and found herself lost in his hazel eyes. Remus raised his eyebrows the corners of his mouth twitching. Lily yanked her hand away blushing slightly.

"Sorry boys but I have to bust this joint." Lily said as she gathered up her purse. The three of them looked at her blankly and Sirius said with his mouth full, "Come again?"

Lily shook her head and than said, "Erm yeah I have to go meet Jul tonight. But I'll be seeing you soon I think."

"Yeah me too." James said and he winked at her, which brought back that darned blush. Lily waved to them and said bye then left and walked out to the porch and slid into her shoes. For some reason or another Sirius had followed her out. He waved her to go outside and than he too stepped out.

"Um I'd just like to say thanks Lily. Thanks for y'know caring enough to tell me about your parents and then thinking about Regulus. We're still far from recovering but I'd say we're on the move on eh? You're the best woman I've ever met. You're so different from them. That I really respect about you." Sirius said with his eyes averted but than looked up at her with his gray eyes smiling.

"You've helped me a lot more than you know Sirius. I thank you for that." Lily moved towards him and gave him a tight hug, which seemed to surprise him.

"I better get going before James thinks I'm up to no good with his favorite girl." Sirius said and he waved at her and than closed the door. Lily stared at the door where Sirius had just shut. James thought of her as his girl? Lily left his flat with a stupid grin on her face.

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A/N: Toughness man, poor Lily and Sirius. I thought it was so interesting how Lily and Sirius seemed to be in the same relationship zone with their families. Have you seen the pictures of the kids their getting to play for young James and Lily for the scene in OotP? The guy that plays James is pretty hot.


	9. Peepin Toms and Snow

A/N: Heeey! We got to the big 100 haha. Thanks guys, more after the chapter.

Disclaimer: JK Rowlings

Chapter 9 of After the Quidditch Game

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A few weeks had passed since Regulus had died and Lily saw that Sirius was dealing with it well. She went to hang out with him, Remus, Peter and James and even though she could still see the pain deep down he was slowly healing. Lily's wounds from the death of her parents were healing as well along with the painful cut off from her sister.

Surprisingly Lily awoke one morning to see out the window that big fluffy snowflakes were falling onto the cold ground, covering all the evidence left over from the fall. Lily pulled on a big sweater and some fleecy socks. She put on her radio and sat down on the floor getting ready to stretch out her stressed limbs.

Lily brought her legs to the front and stretched them as far out as she could. Surprisingly the hardest time of the year for her would probably be the holiday season, Christmas. This was when she would feel that cold emptiness in her heart, yearning for things to be the same like when her parents were living and when Petunia didn't hate her. Wherever she was in her past whether it had been Beauxbatons or at this flat on Christmas Eve she always cried herself to sleep.

Lily raised her arms up like a dancer and she stretched them bringing them to each side. Yet this year it could be different. She had somewhere else to consider this year during the holidays. James had invited her to stay with him and Sirius at his parents a night ago at the Order meeting. Lily had told him she would think about it.

She wasn't really sure if she would go or not. She now realized that James and Sirius had become a very important part of her life. They understood her like no one did because they were both in the Order with her. Elissa and Julia were her girlfriends from Beauxbatons and they definitely replaced the sister she had lost.

Lily would have spent Christmas with Julia and Elissa but they were both going away. Elissa had a boyfriend in Greece and he had invited her home. Julia was actually spending her Christmas with her family as well in Wales. Julia had invited Lily home like a true friend would but Lily didn't want to be an inconvenience to her family. Julia didn't get home that often during the year so Lily thought this would be good for her friend.

So it came back to whether she should tell James if she would spend Christmas with him or not_. I suppose it would be kind of fun with those two for Christmas, we could go sledding and bake cookies_ Lily thought giddily. Yes it would be nice to spend her holidays with those two seeing as she didn't have anything else to do.

Lily stood up happily and she went to her desk. She pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote a note to James.

_Dear James, _

_I want to tell you that I would very much like to come and spend holidays with you, your family and Sirius! _

_Why don't you and Sirius come to the café that I work at this evening after shifts okay? I'll put the instructions_

_on the back. See you then. Lily. _

Lily folded the letter together and than gave the note to her lovebird Delia. Opening the window of her bedroom she let Delia fly out to go and deliver it to James. Lily yawned widely and than decided to jump in the shower, change into her work clothes and then go to work. Her shift that day was 11am until 4pm.

Lily skipped off to the shower and jumped into it. Twenty minutes later Lily stepped out of the steaming bathroom with a big towel wrapped around her head like a turban. Lily walked into her room and then slipped on her housecoat. Waving her wand at her soaking hair it went immediately dry. She pulled a comb through her silky locks as she looked in her closet for a bag.

She pulled out her navy bag and then waved her wand and a bunch of clothing, accessories and her hair things flew into the bag neatly. Lily heard a 'tap tap' on the window and she looked around to see her little lovebird Delia hovering there. Lily opened the wind and a gust of chilly blew into the room.

Lily slipped into her black skirt and white blouse then pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She picked up her bag and slung it on one shoulder as she grabbed a scarf. Lily slipped on her brown corduroy winter jacket and she walked out the door smiling happily at the snow that was falling freely.

She walked briskly down to where her café the Rose Bisbut was. Lily laughed out loud as the snowflakes fell onto her rosy cheeks. She pushed the door open to the café and waved to Josh who had just adorned a white kitchen apron looking incredibly cute with his boyish looks. He grinned at her and began wiping down the coffee pots before filling them up with hot water to boil.

Lily hung her coat on a hook in the back and placed her bag in the corner. She whistled cheerfully to the muggle Christmas music that was playing on the radio. There was nothing quite like the muggle Christmas carols and songs. Lily took out some pre made croissants, buns and tea biscuits that were ready to be cooked. She placed them inside the oven to bake in time for when the first customers would come in the later afternoon.

"So Lily what did you get me for Christmas?" Josh asked.

Lily scoffed loudly and said "Nothing!"

Josh clutched his heart as if Lily's response caused him internal pain. Lily blew a kiss to him and then went to serve the customers who had just walked in through the door. As Lily rang up orders, served coffee and took the baked good out of the oven she thought quite a bit. She really didn't have a clue of what to give James for Christmas.

James meant a lot to her at this point but she didn't really know what their relationship was. It seemed like they had something special or was that all just a hallucination to her? This guy was a pro Quidditch player so how could he be interested in Lily who … worked at a café? It didn't really make sense, but nothing at the moment made sense with all the murdering and destruction going on.

She was a bit nervous to meet his parents and such. Then again what did this mean, him introducing her to his parents and inviting her to spend Christmas with them? Maybe he did like her as a friend or something more. Though she could always just be his plaything as Elissa had said bluntly the day before. Lily gave a dejected sigh and then felt someone prodding her.

"Earth to Lilllly!" Josh said loudly in her ear.

Lily jerked out of her ponderous self and glared up at him. Josh grinned at Lily and then snuck into the back of the café. Lily handed the tea to the man who had just ordered. She looked at his watch and was shocked to see that it was 3:47 in the afternoon. That meant James and Sirius would be coming soon to pick her up.

Josh bounded back into the store with a small wrapped box. Lily raised her eyebrows at Josh as he dangled it in front of her.

"See I'm the only giving person around here geesh. You better like it!" Josh said playfully and he handed the box to Lily. Lily felt her heart soar at the thoughtfulness of her friend. He was one of her friends that she had met out of school since he wasn't a wizard. He didn't know this part about her because she had just met him last year when she had begun to work at Rose Bisbut.

Lily smiled at him and began to pull apart the colorful wrapping paper. Just when she had slipped the wrapping paper revealing a small square box Lily heard the door open and voices come from outside, debating about something.

"I don't think this is the place. Lily really works at some cramped tearoom for her side job? Well better her than me is all I'm saying." James voice said loudly and Lily rolled her eyes.

"This is the place Prongs! See that little rose on the door? Hullo, that's what Lily said to look out for." Sirius's voice floated in through the door proudly and they both stepped inside.

"Aren't you observant today Padfoot." James said dryly.

Lily giggled at the two of them with snow covering the tops of their heads. James grinned at her and Sirius ran at her and gave her an over excitable Sirius hug knocking the wind out of her.

"Nice to see you uhh too Sirius." Lily said in a wheezy voice. Sirius therefore patted her back a bit forcefully as if helping her along to catching her breath but it only made her begin to laugh hysterically.

"Umm you too Lily…" Sirius said in an amused voice and he slowly moved away from her.

After managing to get her breath Lily stood up straightly and saw with a confused expression that James was glaring at Josh?

"You guys this is my friend Josh. He works with me at this _cramped tearoom _me." Lily said glancing over at James with a smirk on her face. James had the decency to run a hand through his hair embarrassedly.

"Hey Lily whatchoo opening?" Sirius asked impatiently pointing to the box in her hand.

Lily realized that she hadn't opened the gift from Josh yet. "Oh Josh gave this me for the holidays." Lily said glancing over at James.

"Well open it up already. We've got to get going right James?" Sirius asked elbowing his sullen looking friend in the arm. James grunted noncommittally and looked out the window of the café. Lily rolled her eyes at his attitude and she opened the box. With a quiet gasp of pleasure she saw that it was a beautiful silver lily necklace.

"Yeah I did have some help from Aliysia with that one." Josh confessed smiling widely. Lily closed the box and squeezed his hand in a thank you.

"It's so pretty. Thank you Josh, oh and tell Aliysia I said thanks too. I better get going." Lily said jokingly as she placed the box in her bag and pulled on her jacket along with her warm scarf.

"No problem Lily." Josh said warmly and he stepped in the back of the store to clean up in the back.

Lily, Sirius and James stepped out of the store to the bustling streets of London with the snow falling down thickly. Lily looked over at James to see him looking forward with a frown on his face. Lily sighed hoping it wasn't what she thought he was going to be in a tetchy mood about. Sirius however was in a jubilant mood except the snow getting in his hair and the chilliness of it.

"Brrrrrrrr it's so cold! This snow is ruining my hair. Geez." Sirius said in an aggravated voice.

Lily snorted with laughter and pulled a hand through Sirius's wet locks.

"Ever heard of the article of clothing called a hat? Maybe that would help from getting your beeyootiful locks frizzy hm?"

Sirius looked at her with wide eyes. "Aw man why didn't I think about that?"

Lily laughed and she pushed him into the snow bank and then pulled James forward so she could talk to him. Lily heard a shout from Sirius and she laughed. She stared at James while they walked until he looked back at her with an aggravated expression.

"What?" He asked irritably.

"What's got your knickers in a knot?" Lily shot back at him with her arms folded in front of her.

"Well geez Lily you could've at least told me you had a boyfriend for the whole time we've known each other. I mean I know you probably would've had someone else before me but you didn't have to keep it concealed from me-"

James said in a rush but Lily placed a gloved hand over his mouth and looked at him with sparkling emerald eyes. James stopped speaking and looked at her with curious eyes.

Lily looked at his lips and felt the incredible urge to kiss him. Lily leaned into him tentatively and kissed him softly on the lips. She could almost feel the shock reverberate off his body but then he deepened the kiss and she could feel herself slowly melting away. Deciding she didn't want to be a muddle of emotions at his disposal Lily broke away from the kiss and then looked at him again.

"James, Josh and I are friends. Him and I met at the café. We're just really good friends is all." Lily said smiling with sudden shyness and she looked down.

Lily felt his hand come up under her chin and raise her heard to look at him. James searched her eyes to for something and then he smiled.

"After a kiss like that I can hardly think that you are his." James said and it seemed he was leaning in for another but all of a sudden a loud SMACK was heard and James fell forward slightly.

"Gotcha!" Sirius said and he laughed loudly. Lily snorted in spite of herself. Only Sirius would ruin a moment like that. James growled loudly and he set off to running after Sirius like a maniac. Lily laughed and she followed them down the road conjuring snowballs and throwing them at the two of them.

They ran down one of the roads. Surprisingly to the other two boys Lily was in the lead with them two closely behind her. Lily thanked her lucky stars that she had run at Beauxbatons. Running was one of those activities that Lily could do to take out her anger or nerves.

"She's beating us Prongs! How can that be possible!" Sirius said in a shocked voice to James.

"She won't beat us if she doesn't know where we're going." James said in a sneaky voice.

"Ohh yeah. She doesn't even know that your parents live on Elmsdales road." Sirius said in a giddy voice.

Lily began to laugh loudly at the idiocy of Sirius and she heard James let out an aggravated sigh. "Padfoot you idiot, you just told her where to go!"

"This is one race you boys aren't ever going to win." Lily said cheekily.

"Don't get too cocky now." James said in an amused voice and to Lily's surprise she felt herself scooped off the ground by Sirius. Lily let out a shriek and she saw that they were going up a driveway.

Her eyes rose at the immense house that was situated diagonally on the big lawn. Trees surrounded the house and spare land covered in snow was spread out around the house. The only other house near to them was down the road quite a bit.

Lily smiled knowing she would have a lot of fun with these guys. Her eyes widened at the beautiful open platform on the second floor that you could go and walk out on a balcony in the evening and look out at the stars. Sirius turned his head and whispered, "The Potters…have money." Lily nodded in agreement as they finally got to the door.

Sirius put her down and than Lily got a mischievous look and darted up to the door and touched it with her hand. "I won!" She said triumphantly. James rolled his eyes at her like he was humoring her. Sirius however said in a singsong voice, "Nu uh! The first person to hit James with a snowball wins."

Lily giggled loudly at the affronted look on James face as he whirled around at Sirius who was making a snowball. James then darted around the house before either of them could hit him with a snowball. The corners of Lily's mouth were twitching as she said to Sirius, "Lets go ambush him together. I know this great invisibility charm."

Sirius nodded eagerly so Lily pulled out her wand and flicked it at Sirius, then at her. The two of them sneaked quietly over to where James was walking around the house peering around. Lily almost laughed out loud at the concentrated look on his face and the way he reacted when he heard the slightest sound.

Sirius nudged her to take the invisibility charm off when they were about a meter away from him. Lily flicked her wand, then hurled the frozen snowball at him and she giggled as he whirled around and started chasing after them. Sirius ran around the other side of the house and Lily the other way.

Lily looked around than saw that he wasn't running after her anymore. She ran to the other side of the house and didn't see them anyplace. Where had they gone? Nothing could've happened to them right? Lily felt her stomach dip with nerves so she looked around frantically and shouted their names. No Sirius and James.

Lily walked back up to the hill but then screamed when she felt two men smash into her knocking the breath out of her lungs once again that day. It was of course, James and Sirius and they fell backwards into the snow. Lily hacked loudly trying to catch her breath.

"Ahahaha gotcha!" Sirius said in an annoying voice. Lily just shook her head at the two of them laughing around in the snow. Lily took two handfuls of snow and then shoved it down their backs smiling as she watched them jump up and start wiggling around.

Lily flounced off to the house and sat down on the wooden stairs as she waited for them. She finally saw the two of them trudge up the hill with irritated looks on their faces. Lily smiled sweetly at them as James unlocked the door with complicated wand jabbing.

"Brrrrrr it's f-f-f-reezing." Sirius said as he pushed through the door into the Potter's house. Lily nodded vigorously as she shivered violently.

"C'mon Lily, I'll show you where your room is so you can get out of those clothes." James said and he kicked off his wet shoes.

Sirius ran off up the big staircase in the middle of the room. Lily followed James into the room with her mouth dropping open. The house was huge! It was really open spaced, throughout the whole place. The big staircase was in the hallway and than down a bit further was what looked like a packed library. To Lily's right was the parlor and where a large fireplace was, waiting to be heated.

James walked up the stairs and Lily followed as she took in the extravagant paintings, some of them were moving and others not. There was a long hall covered with shiny wood and James stopped in front of a door.

"This room here is yours for your whole stay. My room is just a few doors down to the right and Sirius's room is right on your left two doors down." James smiled at her and she felt herself heat up inside at his cute wet and scraggly look.

"Thanks." Lily said and she pushed the door open revealing a vast room of soft yellow and blues. There was a large canopy bed in the middle and a dark cherry desk on the side. Lily placed her bag down on the floor and she moved over by the large impressive big bay window.

It was slowly getting dim outside so Lily decided she had better get in some decent clothes for when James parents got home. Lily pulled out her soggy ponytail and brushed through it. She waved her wand and it went dry again. Lily hummed softly as she slipped off her clothes. She stood in the middle of her room naked and she shivered.

Reaching down to get some clothes out of her bag Lily heard James voice and he pushed open the door saying, "Yeah Mum and Dad aren't coming so-" He stopped dead at her nakedness and Lily turned violent red as she covered herself with the long t shirt she had yanked out.

"JAMES GET OUT OF HERE!" She screeched loudly. James gulped and he swiftly closed the door. Lily slid down embarrassedly by the door and she heard Sirius laughing at James.

"Jeez Potter. A little anxious eh?" Sirius said and he ran down the hallway as James went to run after him.

Lily put her hand to her face, shaking her head. She slipped into the pair of warm cords and dark green cashmere sweater. Lily pulled on some socks and headed to the dining room. She was about to walk into the room when she felt a hand pull her back. Lily turned to see who pulled her and noted with a smile that it was James.

"Look Lily I didn't mean to do that. I wasn't purposely trying to look at you even though I can't say it was a bad sight or anything I ermm don't be mad. I honestly am not a perverted young man who invites chicks over and than walks in them getting undressed or any-" Yet another time that day Lily had to place a hand on his mouth to keep him from talking again.

"James chill out. It's okay. Lets go eat now okay? I'm starved." Lily hooked her arm in with his and pulled him in the dining room where Sirius was already seated at the oak table. On the table there was a steaming plate of turkey, dish of creamy potatoes, a cup of rich gravy and a large bowl of steamed vegetables.

Lily's stomach growled and she smiled as her and James sat down.

"Sirius did… you make this?" Lily asked waving a hand around at the delicious food.

"Are you kidding me? Nah James mum had it cooking in here already. I just put it on the table!" Sirius said grinning proudly.

Lily shook her head and then lowered her head in thanks for the food. They gave a prayer of grace and then dug into the food. James and Sirius got into a debate about Quidditch teams and whether England would get into the championships or as Sirius put it they would rocket down the bottom.

Lily ate the scrumptious dinner and listened to the two men speak about Quidditch. Lily wiped her mouth and then she quietly excused herself to go to the washroom. Lily went back upstairs and went inside the beautiful lavender colored bathroom. She looked at her reflection in the mirror as she washed her hands and stuck her tongue out. Real mature Evans, her inner self thought sarcastically.

Lily went down the hallway and being the nosy person she was she flicked James light on and peered into the room. It was a very large room and it seemed to be caught in a different age group. It showed that its occupant had grown up his first part of his years there and then left. There were childish snitch shaped pillows on his bed and big posters of quidditch teams he had fancied. Lily looked at the floor and saw his dirty clothes in a heap.

Lily rolled her eyes as she walked over to look at the shelf that held many interesting artifacts. There was a plaque from his first professional year of Quidditch. A few scarce medals hung from the hooks along with hats. Lily laughed as she saw a soft white teddy bear on the shelf. It seemed so out of place from the Quidditch junk. Lily picked it up and then felt a weird feeling pierce through her as she held the soft bear.

She put it back wondering why she had such an odd feeling then decided to go see what James and Sirius were doing. Lily walked out of his room and flicked the light off. Lily ran down the stairs and bumped into Sirius. She opened her mouth to say something but her shushed her and whispered, "Shh! Lets go hide from James and than jump out on him?"

Lily giggled at the thought of scaring the regal James Potter as Sirius pulled her hand to follow him. This vacation with the two men would certainly be interesting with silly games and stuff to do. This was definitely appreciated, just having a good free time and forgetting about Voldemort and his evil schemes.

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A/N: I am SO sorry that it took me so flippin long to get this chapter out. I guess you could blame it on school since we've had a bazillion projects and tests. But yep it's up. There was a few hints in here that you guys should keep in mind for the future..;)

Okay I really want to answer your guys questions when you review but I'm a sped when it comes to that. Should I just put my answers on the bottom of each chapters? But jeez thanks we got over 100 alright. I love you all! Anyways next chapter shouldn't take as long as this one did. Tootles.


	10. Dreams and Disasters

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Sorry I have been taking longer and longer lately. Stress has been drinking up all of my…creative juices. And that stress has been caused by like fifty billion assignments and tests at school. But anyways I'll try to get the next one out fairly sooner. Tootles.

Disclaimer: D'you really think it's mine? Of course not. JK Rowlings.

Chapter 10 of After the Quidditch Game

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Lily was deep away into a colorful dream. She was walking up a hill and then saw a bunch of cabins scattered around the site. It looked like a campsite…? Lily shook her head and felt an unknown presence pull her to one cabin in particular. She laughed lightly as she saw a teenaged boy run out the cabin chasing a girl with a can of whipping cream.

The boy yelled out, "I love this muggle stuff!"

She stepped into the cabin and smiled slightly at the mess inside. There were four big trunks half opened spilling out contents such as robes, wrappers of chocolate frogs and a broom. Lily's brow furrowed at the wizardness showing itself quite clearly. She walked out of the cabin and saw a bunch of kids in the air having a game of Quidditch.

A lot of them looked quite foreign, some were dark skinned and others were pale as if they came from different parts of the world. Lily walked closer to take a look at the kids playing but then her vision went blank. All of a sudden a pain hit her in the head and she fell down on her feet as she heard screams in the air. She opened one eye painfully and saw that the kids were now on the ground unmoving.

Lily's eyes widened as she saw the unmistakable black robes and masks of Death Eaters. Moody had shown her pictures they had managed to snap of them. Lily let out a strangled scream as the Death Eaters kicked aside children and looked at them. One of them looked up and stared at her menacingly and started walking towards her.

Lily stood up even though her head was pounding painfully. Oh God this had better be a dream. She balled her fists and glared at the man walking towards her. He raised his wand and opened his wand to utter a sound. Lily let out a scream and ducked, but when she fell to the ground it was if the ground went with her for she was gone from the campground. It was dark again.

Lily stood up from her bed breathing heavily. She groped her hand around for her wand and flicked the light on. Cold sweat was mingling on her face as if they were tears that had fallen during the dream. Lily gulped for air as she breathed in and out tightly. Pulling her blanket she wiped the wetness from her face and she fell backwards on the bed

What an odd dream. But why did she feel such familiarity when she was in the dream? Lily placed a hand on her forehead and then slowly willed herself to fall back asleep.

Perhaps she was just having so much excitement than usual these past days with James and Sirius. All of Sirius's blueberry eating contests must have just triggered something in her brain to have such odd dreams. Yes that must be it. Of all the things Sirius wanted to have a contest with blueberries. Odd boy.

Lily let out a quiet laugh and then turned on her stomach placing her head on the plump pillow. She closed her eyes and thought of what they had been doing lately. Her, Sirius and James had been having snowball fights and gone flying in the snow. It had actually been quite fun. James parents hadn't been home at all. Lily thought it seemed odd but didn't ask questions because it looked like it was normal from the attitudes of Sirius and James.

Last night they had discussed that they would go Christmas shopping since it was in a few days. Lily had decided she was going to get Sirius a hat but she didn't know what to get James. This boy had pretty much everything so what could she get him?

Lily sighed in her pillow and then fell back asleep.

James and Sirius had just gotten all cleaned up and were now in the kitchen eating syrupy pancakes. Lily was getting washed up because the three of them were going shopping that afternoon.

"Sirius man what should I get her?" James asked with a frustrated sigh as he pulled a hand through his messy hair.

"Now Jamesie you have to learn to be independent. I'm not always going to be there to give you advice on woman since everyone knows I'm the expert." Sirius said through a mouthful of pancake that James was surprised he could talk.

"Sirius!" James said exasperatedly as he drank his juice up moodily.

"Yep that's my name." Sirius said grinning at James. He noticed James hastily open his mouth to say something so Sirius cut across him and said, "Don't break a nail James, here I'll help you go shopping today ok?"

"Gooooooood morning!" Lily said exuberantly as she stepped into the kitchen with a grin on her face. She had finally gotten out of the shower and her hair was in a high ponytail. She was wearing a pair of dark denim jeans and her dark green cashmere sweater.

James looked at Sirius nervously and said, "Morning…did you hear anything?"

"Maybe." Lily said with a mischievous smile. She walked over and took a blueberry muffin off the table.

"Weeeeell it's not like we were talking about anything important, eh Prongs?" Sirius asked with a laugh and he elbowed James lightly.

James merely glared at Sirius and than looked up at Lily with a charming smile.

"So we gonna go shopping today?" Lily asked casually.

James nodded and he stood up to put his dishes in a silver box that then spit them back out a second later all shining clean. Ahh…magic

"Yep, we want to bring you to the wizarding village called Hogsmeade. It's near Hogwarts and we would always visit on our weekends back in the day." Sirius said with a grin, reminiscing.

"Wicked." Lily said enthusiastically.

The three of them got up and cleaned the remnants of breakfast from the table. They got into their appropriate winter attire and went to apparate to Hogsmeade. All of a sudden the three of them were standing in the kitchen concentrating hard then they turned and quite suddenly they were in Hogsmeade.

Lily looked around with a smile on her face. It was lightly snowing as they walked down the crowd-infested street. Some people pointed at James when they saw him and others came up boldly to him, asking for autographs. Lily felt a grin slip on her face and Sirius traded her with an amused grin as well.

Finally James was free from his fans and they stepped into a cozy nook called the Three Broomsticks. Inside the cozy tearoom they were, or you could say James was bombarded with attention.

Sirius had a smirk on his face and let out a bark of a laugh since he was fully used to this attention his mate got. Lily followed him to get a drink. Sirius greeted Mme. Rosmerta with a flirtatious smile that she returned. Lily rolled her eyes laughing and than they went to find a table in the back for the three of them to sit at.

James finally made his way to their table with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Finally got away from your stalkers.. ehem.. fans?" Lily asked with a raised eyebrow.

"For now." James said cockily and he took a swig of his butterbeer

"Dear Jimmy always has always been too popular for his own good." Sirius said sarcastically and then grinned at James.

Lily took a sip of her sweet warm drink as she looked around the room for familiar faces but she didn't see anybody. James and Sirius got into a conversation about the new seeker on the Bulgarian team. Out of the blue a young woman came over to their table, her gaze set on James.

"You're James Potter I'm assuming." The woman asked in a light teasing feminine voice

"You assumed correctly." James said with a grin.

"Would you give me an autograph?" The woman asked.

"Sure." James said easily. Lily had a feeling she knew where this was going.

"Could you sign here?" The woman asked with a purr as she pointed at her chest that was revealed by the low cut shirt. James looked at the woman with raised eyebrows but nonetheless complied. Lily glared at the woman but she took no heed because after James had signed his name she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Lily cleared her throat and saw the young woman look at her.

"James is this your girlfriend?" The woman asked in an accusatory voice.

Sirius grinned as James began to splutter. "Uh…well…you see." Lily however broke across his uncertain thoughts and said sharply, "No. Anyways I've gotta go do my shopping. Meet you guys back here at 4." And with that Lily got up and pulled on her creamy touque, her emerald eyes glittering as she looked at James and then walked out

The woman looked at James and then whistled. "Looks like she's mad."

When the woman has walked away James turned to Sirius and said, "What d'you reckon Padfoot?"

"Dunno mate. Women are confusing people."

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Lily sighed frustratingly as she walked into another store. She wasn't sure why she was feeling agitated. Why was she getting that twinge of jealously and urge to slap the random gold digging woman who kissed James?

Lily pinched her nose to stop the headache that was coming. She looked up to see that she had entered a wizarding clothing shop. Lily walked over contently looking at the new winter styles. She picked out a dark blue toque for Sirius. Strolling around she went over to the handsome scars on some shelves.

She fingered through them and than found a handsome dark green soft wool scarf with grey wool mixed in it. Lily picked it up and knew that this would look stunning on James. It wasn't the most exciting gift but she knew he had probably experienced his share of exciting Christmas gifts.

She walked over to the counter with a lighter heart. At least she had gotten her Christmas shopping all down. Her, Julia and Elissa had already exchanged gifts before they went their separate ways. Lily had received the white toque from Elissa and a bottle of her favorite perfume from Julia.

As Lily stepped out of the door she began to walk down the street. One of her light bagged packages flew out of her hand and out towards another street. Lily sipped over to it and than quieted down when she heard voices.

"Will you come and take the pictures?" A man said in a cold drawl and the hairs on the back of Lily's neck rose as she recognized the speaker.

The woman replied back with doubt, "And you say I'm going to benefit from it? How exactly?"

"I'll tell you, lets just find a more private place to talk." Luscius said with a suspicious glance around. Lily quickly grabbed her bag and fled the area, not wanting to stay and chat.

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"Padfoot we've been to like fifty billion stores and I still haven't found anything for Lily." James said in an agitated voice and he pulled his hand through his already tousled hair.

"You're the one who didn't like anything. I had plenty of suggestions you just didn't listen to me." Sirius said in a regal tone as he pushed his long black hair out of his eyes.

"Oh yees Lily would've REALLY liked that super all-star pack of dungbombs." James said in a sarcastic voice.

"Not only that but I think she would've really liked that-" Sirius began to say but James quickly cut him off.

"I'm serious. Now if we don't find anything in here I don't know what I'm going to do." James said tiredly and they quickly pushed into the store as they both spied a group of wild young teenaged girls looking for James.

They had entered a noisy pet store. James grimaced at the choruses of bird screeching and the squeaking of the wheels as the rats ran. There was a colorful parrot in the middle of the room squawking very loudly. Sirius walked over it with a grin on his face.

James walked to the back of the room and looked at the animals with a look of disinterest. There were a few fluffy rabbits sleeping together and a ferret in another cage. James eyes swooped around and than his eyes caught on a little kitten walking daintily around.

James crouched down and looked at the kitten. It was pure white and the creepy thing was it had emerald green eyes. Almost like Lily's just a shade darker. James looked around wildly for Sirius and said, "Padfoot! C'mere."

Sirius came back with a slight disgruntled look on his face. The parrot had bitten him. "What is it Prongs?"

"Check this kitten out." James said excitedly.

Sirius raised his eyebrows at James enthusiasm and then bent down grumpily to look at it. A second later he resurfaced and said, "Righteous."

"I know, I think I've found the gift." James said and than he walked over to the cashier to explain he wanted to buy the kitten.

20 minutes later James and Sirius were strolling down Hogsmeade. The kitten was in a little wicker basket and James was laden with kitten toys, food, hygienically needs for it and some treats. He decided to go home and get Sirius to meet Lily since he didn't want her to see the kitten.

Sirius waved to him and than walked around to find Lily. He found her walking away very fast from someplace with a nervous look on her face.

"Alright Lily?" Sirius asked as he put an arm around her.

"Oh..um yeah I guess so." Lily said in a quiet voice. Sirius looked at her with a calculating expression but he decided not to question.

"James had to go home early for something so I told him we'd meet him there" Sirius said with a grin on his face. The two of them apparated and they appeared at the bottom of the driveway.

Lily walked around with her mouth open as she caught snowflakes. She began to giggle when she saw Sirius looking at her with a funny expression.

"What are you doing?" Sirius asked incrediously.

"Catching snowflakes. C'mon try it!" Lily said enthusiastically and she walked around vigourusly for more snowflakes. Sirius joined and soon they were shouting at each other when they got a snowflake.

"27th! Lily said in a loud voice.

"Not fair you started before me." Sirius said in a sulky voice as he walked around in the snow.

James pushed open the door and saw the two of them running around like idiots their mouths opened widely facing the sky.

"What are you fools doing?" He yelled from the doorway.

"We're having a 'catch the most snowflakes' contest. Come and join us Prongs." Sirius yelled back.

James rolled his eyes and then grabbed some winter clothing to keep him warm. The three of them had a serious snowflake competition the rest of the afternoon. Sirius claimed to be the winner but Lily said she got more snowflakes. For some reason James did terribly.

The next few days until Christmas were busy. Lily, James and Sirius were mostly found outdoors catching up on what James called childish games such as sledding and snowball fights. Of course he didn't refuse when they dragged him away from his little office.

Finally the day of Christmas Eve came and the three of them were found out late in the afternoon finishing a game of Quidditch. It had been an intense game of Quidditch in the snow. Lily acted as the keeper, Sirius the beater and James the chaser. It was quite entertaining and they all called it quits when Sirius almost clubbed James in the head when the snow began to fall too thickly.

Lily ran up to her room of the Potter's and locked the door so James wouldn't walk in on her again. She stripped of the wet clothing and then waved her wand at her freezing body. It was immediately dry and she slipped into some warm cords and a thick yarn sweater.

Lily pulled a headband through her hair and than she ran down the stairs. She looked at her watch and was surprised to see that it was four thirty in the afternoon. James had told her earlier that morning that his parents would finally be home from their work though it would probably be late.

She had wrapped her gift to Sirius and James and the gifts were lying under the tree the three of them had decorated yesterday.

"Boo!" Sirius jumped out from behind the staircase and Lily stuck her tongue out at him. James came up behind the two and said, "Real mature."

Lily gave him a shove and then waltzed into the kitchen to eat some dinner. Tonight there was a big bowl of fish chowder. In a basket there were homemade smelling rolls and the bowls were set out. Lily, extremely hungry from all the Quidditch playing that afternoon grabbed a bowl and filled it up. She took a roll and than went to sit in the living room where the tree was to eat her food.

Sirius and James followed suit and then all of them were sitting in the living room eating the delicious chowder. Lily set down her bowl and than sat back on the couch her head was right sleepy. She sat back with eyes closed half listening to Sirius and James chat about the upcoming World Quidditch Cup.

She fell asleep on the couch and felt her drifting into another dream. This time she was walking around a muggle suburban and the scene seemed like an oddly horrifying disaster. Lily heard screaming and than a fire burst on one of the big buildings nearby.

Lily began to run to the building and jogged up the stairs afraid of the scene that she was going to find. Lily smelt smoke and something else she couldn't place as she reached the top of the stairs. Pushing open the door hesitantly a scream escaped from her mouth of the scene that met her eyes.

Young toddlers were running around and there were men in masks. Some were on the floor, the blood pooling around them reciting the story of what had happened. Lily ran and pushed one of the men down who was about to kill a child. He looked up at her menacingly through the creepy mask and advanced on her.

She scrambled away but someone grabbed her ankle and she fell down hard onto the ground. He was going to get her, she needed to get out of there! Just when he was opening his mouth to say the killing curse the scene began to fade into blackness but she heard the haunted screams of young children and people. A blast of green light illuminated her dream and then she was awoken again cold sweat saturated on her face.

"Lily, you okay?" James concerned voice came and Lily swiped a hand to clear the blurriness. James took her clammy hand and then began rubbing it hard.

Sirius came with a glass of water and handed it to her. She took it and drank it quickly. Somehow she knew that something odd had happened because they wouldn't be hovering around her like this. "How long have I been out?"

"Six hours. We thought you just fell asleep from the game but then you started thrashing around and screaming." James said in a concerned voice.

"Oh god." Lily said placing a hand on her forehead as she felt a pending headache taking over.

"My parents are going to be home any minute. They sent us a note but you can go up to bed now if you're not feeling well." James said and Lily smiled at him thinly and put her hand over his.

"It's okay. Just a bad dream." Lily said nonchalantly but her insides were feeling nauseous.

Just then a few pops were heard in the kitchen and then a feminine voice was saying, "Sirius, how nice to see you again." A male voice followed and James ran out to the kitchen.

Lily frantically smoothed her hair down behind her ear. She was finally getting to meet James parents and she had just woken up from a nightmare. Wasn't she just going to be full of lovely chat!

Lily stood up as James parents walked into the room with Sirius and James behind them. James mother had light brown hair that was in an elegant twist. She had James big hazel eyes framed with the beautiful long lashes. She came up to her and said, "It's lovely to meet you Lily. You can call me Cynthia."

Cynthia moved forwards and to Lily's shock she gave her a sincere hug. Lily blinked back sudden tears at being hugged like this because it had been a long time that she hadn't.

"Nice to meet you too Cynthia." Lily said in a quiet voice.

"Smashing to meet you Lily. I'm John." He said with a serious smile and gave her a handshake.

He was a tall man with dark black messy trademark hair. He had dark green eyes that had a sparkle in them misleading someone from his serious outlook. She hid a smile as she saw the similarities between her father and James. Though if it had been the other way around her father would've been scrutinizing James.

They all sat down and Cynthia waved her wand in a complicated twirl. Delicate glasses of decaffeinated tea came flying out towards each person.

"I'm sorry we took so long getting here. It's been real busy these past few days at the Ministry. John and I are Aurors so we've had our hands full. Than to top it all off tonight there was a horrible disaster in a muggle town." Cynthia said in a saddened voice as she sipped her tea.

"Oh that's too bad Mum. Did you have to go and check it out?" James asked as he took a drink of his tea.

"Yes your father and I had to go. It was at a daycare in a little town called Surrey. Very devastating because the Death Eater's that we know had hit their target and killed 20 toddlers there." Cynthia said seriously.

Lily stood up suddenly feeling something cold inside her freeze her all the way up. "D'you have names of who have been killed?"

John slid his hand in his pant leg pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and than handed it to her. Lily's eyes slid through the early edition of the Prophet and than slid onto the couch dumbly.

"Oh god." Lily said and than the darkness pulled her down.

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A/N: I can't believe it took my three weeks to get this out! That makes me aggravated but seriously, my weekly schedule is unbelievably busy and when I get home from all my activities I do homework and then fall asleep at like a really late hour. So I'm usually sleep deprived and what not.

I am sorry though that it took this long. One more month of school for me so then I'll be able to write write write. I do sort of want to get this all done before the end of this summer.

Anyways enough yakking about me. Tell me how you liked this chapter. Ohhhh cliffie and interesting hints in here that you should take heed of. Tootles. Oh and REVIEW! You don't know how nice it is to go in my inbox after an intense day of school and dance to find reviews in there.

Edited


	11. Breeches and Memories

A/N: Yo yo yo guys! The reviews were lovely last chapter. Yuuuck I have exams in approximately one week so I am speeding to try and get this out before I have to lock myself in my room and study tell me brains melt.

Disclaimer: Bah humbug it's all JK Rowlings.

Chapter 11 of After the Quidditch Game

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Lily opened her eyes up blearily and she felt a hand stroking her forehead. She winced at the looming headache in the back of her eyes as she struggled to push herself up.

"Lily." James said and he helped her slide up and rest against the cushions of the couch. He looked at her with concerned hazel eyes and she gave him a small smile.

Cynthia came rushing out of the kitchen with a glass in her hand. "Oh Lily I'm glad you're up. Drink this, it will clear up your headache." She said and she handed the glass to Lily. Lily looked up at her with a grateful smile and then wondered inwardly how Cynthia knew she had a headache.

She took a gulp and scrunched up her nose at the pungent taste the drink was. Immediately though when it slid down her throat her headache lessened and her eyes seemed to clear up.

"Lily dear I'm sorry to ask you so soon but did you know someone at the daycare who was killed?" Cynthia asked with worry in her eyes and she took Lily's hand. Lily swallowed thickly as cold fear gripped inside herself as she remembered what she had read in the article. It had said that countless children had been murdered but also many parents of the children had been injured.

Lily had to get to Surrey that evening to find out if her sister was okay. She had found out that her sister had gotten married a few years ago and she knew that Petunia had always wanted children. She needed to know even if her sister wouldn't be exactly happy to see her.

"I need to get there as soon as possible, I need to see if my sister is okay." Lily said thickly and Cynthia held her hand a little more tightly.

"I'm sorry hunny but it's late, don't you think you should wait until tomorrow morning?" Cynthia asked.

"I need to know how Petunia is." Lily repeated in anxious voice and she stood up quickly looking at James and then Cynthia. Cynthia looked at James uncertainly for him to back her up.

"Lily, we can both go tomorrow morning together." James said in a quiet voice.

Lily felt for her wand in her pocket and then flicked it. She jacket came flipping out from nowhere and it quickly threw itself on her. Before James or Cynthia could utter a word she nodded at them and then turned, apparating to her old town.

Lily walked steadily into the crisp snow that had just finished falling. The sky was dark and clear like a smooth piece of black glass and Lily's breath rose in the air as she walked briskly to the sidewalk. She knew James would be angry with her by disappearing out of nowhere but he wasn't her boss.

Lily tried to ignore the nerves streaking through her stomach as she began to jog down to her old house. She had a feeling Petunia might be living someplace near their old childhood home or maybe in the same house. Lily ran the last few streets down and then walked up the driveway to the old house.

She looked around with squinted eyes to see if anyone could see her. Deciding it was safe she whispered, "Alohomora" and the front door opened and in she went.

Lily blinked back the sudden familiarity of the home she had lived in with her parents and Petunia. It seemed almost exactly the same except it was much cleaner. Petunia always had been obsessive when it came to keeping things clean and tidy. She walked down the hallway and into the kitchen and felt her stomach relieve some tension as she saw her sister in the kitchen scrubbing the counter repeatedly even though it looked quite clean.

"Petunia?" Lily asked in a nervous voice, as she wasn't quite sure what her sister would say to her. They hadn't spoken in 5 years and Petunia hadn't responded to any of her letters Lily had written.

Petunia whirled around with a wild look in her red-rimmed eyes. She narrowed her eyes with malice and said in a voice filled with hatred, "What are you doing in my house? Did you just barge in you despicable piece of trash?" Lily winced at the coldness in Petunia's voice.

She swallowed thickly before saying, "Pet I was worried. I heard there had been an acc-"

"Oh so YOU know that it happened. It must mean that the bastards were from your world. I knew it! I knew they were those freaks of nature you claimed to belong to!" Petunia shrieked out in a loud voice.

Lily wondered whether she should just leave and not work up Petunia anymore but she said, "Petunia they are the bad people from my world. I don't belong to that kind of a group. It's like the murderers and rapists in this world, you don't belong to that kind of a group. They're just here, the dark side of the good."

"Oh don't you tell me any of this dear Lily! Look at what has happened. All I ever wanted was a normal life, but no this had to happen. My husband is in the hospital in critical condition because he tried to kick off those bloody bastards off of my child but he didn't get there in time. My poor baby boy is gone!" Petunia said and she began to sob as she clutched her face in a pitiful manner.

Lily walked over to her to give her a hug but Petunia suddenly pushed her away ferociously.

"Don't TOUCH me! It's your entire fault that my boy is dead and that my husband is near death. It was your kind that killed them! I will never forgive you for that Lily Evans. I thought I could get over the fact of my parents death but this is the breech. Get out of my house, I don't ever want to see you again!" Petunia sobbed out, sudden rage over taking her posture.

"Petunia I swear that I'm not apart of them. I'm in a group who fights the men who were at the daycare. We're trying to stop them from murdering anymore." Lily said in a choked voice.

"Always the saint Lily. You're nothing but a deceiving little bitch. Get away!" Petunia said and she suddenly grabbed a sharp kitchen utensil.

Lily's eyes widened in fear as Petunia lunged at her with the object. She dodged her and than ran down the hallway and out of the house. Petunia walked out to the front of the door and then yelled in a maniacal voice, "Don't ever darken my doorstep again!"

Lily began to sob quietly as she jogged down to the bench on the sidewalk. She collapsed on it and began to cry, sobs wracking her body and stealing the air from her lungs. She lay there for awhile just crying and looking into the sky with unseeing eyes.

All of a sudden she heard feet running and a shout from beyond. Lily looked up and saw a familiar face running towards her and was surprised to see that it was Sirius.

"Lily! We've been looking all over for you- but bloody hell what happened?" Sirius asked in a shocked voice as he pulled her up and put a warm arm around her.

Lily shook her head because she didn't trust herself to speak yet. Sirius nodded and than said seriously, "James is gonna have his nut if we don't go back to him. He's down the other street."

They two of them walked back down to the street and than Sirius hollered out for James. James came running out with his eyes wide and then he sprinted over to Lily. He grabbed her roughly by the arms and than said in a gruff voice, "Don't ever sneak out like that again! D'you know what could've happened? Death Eaters are still roaming around this joint and if they had of found you-"

"Prongs give her a rest. I daresay she found out what she was looking for and it wasn't spectacular. Lets go home." Sirius said in a final voice and Lily looked at him with big eyes. He squeezed her hand in response and then nodded for them to get home.

James looked at Sirius and than shut his mouth, instead putting a hand protectively around Lily. She looked out in the distance as they walked about to find a safe place to apparate so nobody would see them. She felt considerably stupid to have caused all the trouble. She probably looked like quite the drama queen who was flouncing about everywhere.

They found a dark alley way and the three of them concentrated to getting back to the Potter's place. One moment the three of them were standing there, one was troubled and the other two were worried. Then the darkness swallowed them and there was just empty space.

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Lily waved to them and then ran up the staircase and into the privacy of her room. She shut the door and then slid down clutching her arm as she buried her face into her knees and cried. She felt INCREDIBLY stupid. The three of them had gotten into the living room and there was Cynthia and John fretting over them wondering where they had been and so on.

James had managed to smooth it over and told them that Lily wasn't feeling good so she could leave. She felt embarrassed that Sirius and James had found her like that in her old town. Oh well, what's done is done and I'll just have to deal with it tomorrow when they decide to ask questions Lily thought to herself.

Sniffing softly she brought her small hand to her face and wiped at her eyes and closed her swollen eyes. She suddenly saw flashes of Petunia yelling at her with hatred fixed all over her face. Lily's eyes flew open and she stifled a sob and slowly crawled towards her vanity.

Lily looked at her disheveled reflection grimacing. Her hair was sticking up in all directions and her normal creamy complexion was now red and blotchy. She wrinkled her nose in disgust and than dug her hairbrush through her hair.

Lily sat there for a while just brushing her hair and looking back into her reflection. She finished with her hair and then looked at her wristwatch. It read one forty seven in the morning. Lily fingered her cross necklace as she bit her bottom lip in thought. She wanted to go talk to James but she wasn't sure if he still would be up.

Grabbing her purple slippers and housecoat she pushed open her door quietly and tiptoed down the hallway to James room. She was almost there when she stepped on the floor and a loud groan came beneath it. She froze and looked around as she held her breath.

Deciding that no one heard her she finished tiptoeing to James room and than slid into the room, closing the door behind her quietly. Lily walked over to his large bed and sat at the edge of it watching him as he slept peacefully. His face was sideways on the pillow and his body was half sprawled on the bed.

Lily took in his boxers and noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt. Her eyes rove against his slender yet muscular physique and she blushed slightly. She looked over to his face and noticed that his face was twisted in a scared look. She went to put a hand on his forehead when he suddenly said, "No! Don't take her! Take me instead. Please!"

Lily pulled her hand back and felt her insides churn nervously. What was he dreaming about?

"Get back! Let them take me!" James said in an anxious voice and he twisted violently.

Lily put her hand on his forehead and than started whispering his name in a soothing voice as she stroked his head. He twisted once more and than awoke. Lily looked at him with worried eyes and he opened his eyes blearily. "Lily." He said in a hoarse but relieved voice.

"I'm here James. You can go back to sleep." She said in a quiet voice.

"I'm glad you're okay Lily." James said and than he closed his eyes and fell back asleep.

Lily pulled the blankets over his sleeping form and than went to leave the room and go back asleep herself.

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Lily awoke the next morning to the feeling of two big lumps that had just jumped on her bed. What is going on she thought to herself as she opened her eyes tiredly and then sighed to see that it was just Sirius and James.

"It's Christmas morning Lillllly wake up!" Sirius drawled out in an excited voice.

"It's time to go eat and then open gifts." James chimed in the other side and Lily rolled her eyes at the two young men looking at her with excitement in their eyes.

"Okay, okay I'm getting up already. Wait a minute…what time is it?" Lily asked suspiciously as she pushed herself out of bed and pulled on her fleecy purple robe.

"We let you sleep in since it's your first time with us for Christmas. It's eight." James said nonchalantly.

"Eight in the morning!" Lily asked as she whirled around to look at them.

"No, it's bloody eight in the evening." Sirius said sarcastically and Lily glared at him and said dryly, "Har har."

"We're wasting precious time. C'mon let's go downstairs." James said and he grabbed Lily's arm and marched her out of the bedroom and down to the kitchen with Sirius following closely behind.

In the kitchen they found Cynthia and John seated at the table with a plate stacked with delicious looking golden pancakes. Lily felt her mouth water at the smell and the three of them took their seats at the table. James pulled the silver pitcher of syrup towards him and he soaked his pancakes with the sauce.

"How're you feeling this morning Lily?" John asked politely as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"Much better thank you." Lily said with a smile and she too drizzled the sauce over her pancakes and than passed it to Sirius who was impatiently waiting for it.

"That's good dear." Cynthia said in a kind voice

Lily ate her food in silence as she listened to John tell James and Sirius about the teams who were most likely going to be qualifying for the World Cup that was approaching rapidly in three months. Lily watched James as he excitedly told the rest of them about how they were going to qualify for it and play Bulgaria for their first game.

After breakfast all five of them headed into the living room where the tree was and the many colorful gifts that lay underneath it. Lily slid into the loveseat with James and Sirius strung himself into a big leather chair next to them. John and Cynthia sat next to the tree in a burgundy loveseat.

For the next three hours there was countless ripping and tearing. Lily was astonished when she found out that James parents had gotten her something. They had given her a beautiful leather bound book filled to the brim with complex and interesting Charm spells. Lily's face glowed as she ripped off the wrapping of it and she gave them each a hug.

Sirius had given her an Ireland quidditch team jersey much to the dislike of James. Lily pulled it on over her pajamas and James gave her a pout.

Sirius had laughed when he opened Lily's gift and he pulled it on his head. He looked quite handsome in it and so did James when he pulled on the dark green scarf she had given him. She smiled at him softly as he took her hand and pulled her out of the room.

"Thanks for the scarf. I'll wear it with my Quidditch robes as a good luck charm." James said and Lily squeezed his hand.

Lily looked at him with big eyes as he slowly leaned towards her. Their lips met and Lily felt an explosion go up behind her as she felt the electricity slip from his body to hers. She held his kiss and then they broke apart.

j"C'mon, I want to give you my gift." He said in a hoarse voice and Lily nodded to him, following him back into the room.

When they got back in Sirius raised his eyebrows at them but didn't say a word though Lily could tell by the small smirk forming on his face meant he knew what had just happened.

James walked over to the tree and than stuck a hand in the back. He fished out a medium sized box wrapped in bright paper and a big red bow on the top. He handed it to her and Lily noticed that there were holes poked in on the side of the box. She raised an eyebrow at James and than cautiously slid the top of the box off.

Lily suddenly heard a 'meow' and she let out a laugh as she peered into the box already knowing what it was.

"Oh James!" Lily breathed as she picked up the gorgeous little kitten from the inside of the box and she placed it on her lap. It had been sleeping so it let out a few kitten yawns and than peered up at Lily with bleary eyes. Lily's own eyes widened as she saw the color if its eyes.

"Bloody hell, its eyes are the same color as yours Lily!" Sirius said as he walked around to get a closer look.

"Sirius, watch your language!" Cynthia scolded lightly and she smiled as he patted her hand.

"D'you like her?" James asked in an anxious voice and Lily smiled at him. "She's wonderful. I love her."

"Well you need to give her a name." Sirius said in a matter of fact voice and Lily grinned at him.

James however looked at them all with sudden nervousness and said sheepishly, "Well you know…she already answers to one name. It was being lazy one day so the cashier called it a name and now the cat wouldn't answer to anything else."

"What is it than?" Lily asked interestedly as she watched James squirm.

"Dopey." James said with the air of embarrassment.

"James!" Four choruses of voices than said.

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Lily, James and Sirius sat out in the 'sunroom' upstairs. It was originally the sunroom but became the starlight gazing in the winter. There were some comfy couches and chairs in there and the walls and sides were all enclosed glass so they could look in the sky.

Lily was sitting on a round chair with her new kitten on her lap. She had dubbed the kitten Doe for short because she really didn't want to call it Dopey. She grinned at that morning's events and knew she would never forget it as long as she lived.

James's parents had left again that evening to go into the Ministry. There were some shifty characters that had entered the building that afternoon and they wanted Cynthia and John to come down and check on them. James and Sirius were also spread out in round chairs and they both were gazing into the sky in silence.

"So did you have fun with us Lily?" Sirius asked as he stretched out his body and than put his arms behind his back in a sign of comfort.

"Yep. It was pretty crazy." Lily said contently.

"You're right." James said from the other chair.

Lily sat back in her chair unknowing to her that this time might be one of the last where she would be with her two friends, enjoying each others company and not worrying about …other stuff.

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A/N: Bahahha I actually got it out way faster baby! And oh man I was supposed to be studying for my Biology exam. I did get two hours of math tonight though so I'm thinking I deserved this time to just type. So big stuff is about to begin next chapter. It shall be interesting.

Oh and I know that Petunia didn't have a child before Dudley (or that we know of) but I couldn't of even injured Dudley because Dudley and Harry came around about the same time. It's gonna be a little while longer before Lily even begins to think about that kind of stuff..especially with dear Jamsie

Anyways pleeeeeeeeease REVIEW! I'll love you forever.


	12. New Year's or not?

A/N: Yo yo yo. Hooray school is over.

Disclaimer: Hmmm nope it's not mine. JK Rowlings.

Chapter 12 of After the Quidditch Game

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Things were changing quickly in the wizarding world and muggle world. There were much more stories in the Daily Prophet about disastrous events happening along with deaths of beloved wizards. Lily was still reeling in shock about the whole Petunia incident. Her heart was feeling heavy at this point of time, thinking about what had happened and the things her sister had said to her.

James had been most supportive along with Sirius but Lily needed to get home and back to her flat to mull things over. For some reason memories of her parents were empowering her dreams when her weary head would hit the pillow. Why all of a sudden was she feeling a sudden yearning for them she didn't know. Perhaps it was the breech between her and Petunia. In the past her parents could usually patch up there arguments but not anymore.

Another thing that was slightly unnerving her were the unusual dreams she was having in the evening. She was dreaming a lot about a camp with faceless teenagers and then Death Eaters tearing up the camp. There were the usual nightmares about terrible things happening to the people in the Order, the people she had come to be friends with.

One dream (or nightmare) stood out particularly to Lily as she sat back on her chair with a cup of tea in one hand. She had dreamt about a small muggle village and she saw Death Eaters come and tear it apart. She had seen the death, destruction and fear in the peoples faces for they didn't know what was happening.

But the most terrifying part was that the next day when she opened the Daily Prophet she had read about a very similar event happening in a small muggle town. Could she, Lily Evans perhaps be having premonitions about things to happen?

Lily laughed out loud in a hoarse voice and then shook her head. _My mind must be thinking of funny things from the lack of sleep I'm getting Lily thought to herself. _She feared the nightmares she was having when she slept so she stayed up as late as she could reading books and watching the television.

But today was one day that she was going to try and forget about all the confusion and fear swirling around her life. It was New Years Eve and her, Julia and Elissa were going to do a bit of shopping in London. That evening they had gotten tickets to a really hot dance club and Lily was excited to go with her friends.

Elissa had invited her Greek boyfriend to come with her to the club so Lily (a nudge from Julia as well) decided to invite James, Sirius and Remusto come to the club. Peter was busy at work so he wasn't able to come.She was certain it would be a fun night out together for all of them and would help take the worry off of James and Sirius's mind as well.

It had recently come to the attention of Sirius, James and Lily that there was a spy in the Order's midst. Moody and Dumbledore had come up after the latest meeting and told them. Very few in the Order knew already and that's how Dumbledore wanted it to be.

Lily shook her head as she finished the rest of her somewhat cold tea and then stood up to get washed up. Julia had stayed over at Elissa's flat the night before so they were going to meet Lily in Diagon Alley.

She walked down the hall and closed the bathroom behind her. Slipping off her clothes she turned on the shower knob and hot water came rushing through the tap. Lily scowled as the hotness burned her hand and then she adjusted it. Lily then stepped into the shower and began wetting her hair and washing herself up for the day.

Twenty minutes later Lily stepped into her room with a pink towel wrapped up with all her wet hair in a turban like appearance. Lily giggled at her reflection as she sat down to comb her hair out. Lily picked up her wand and then flicked it so her hair was now tumbling down in a soft sheen of auburn.

She slipped on a pair of black pants and a green v-neck long sleeved shirt. Pulling on her white corduroy jacket she jammed on a green toque and pulled some gloves on. Lily grabbed her purse and then was gone, apparating to Diagon Alley.

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Lily looked up to see that she had appeared right in front of Gringotts, the most reputable bank for magical people. Lily herself had an account but that day she was not in need of a visit there for she had plenty of money in her brightly decorated purse.

She glanced up the street trying to see any familiar faces and then moved on to go up to the Leaky Cauldron where Julia and Elissa had told her to meet them for a drink before going shopping. The wind was blowing slightly but luckily it wasn't snowing quite yet. Lily liked winter at the beginning but then she slowly would get bored of the cold weather.

The Leaky Cauldron looked busy enough as Lily pushed open the door and was greeted by Tom. He grinned at her toothily and then showed her the table where her friends were. She smiled thankfully to him as he found the table where they were at through the hordes of people in the room.

"Lillllllllly!" Julia said excitedly as she squeezed her friend's arm. Lily smiled at her and sat down next to a slightly frowning Elissa. Lily noted she was reading the Daily Prophet.

"What're you frowning about Liss?" Lily asked as Tom came back with a warm cup of tea. She poured in some milk and watched as the color of the tea went from dark to a creamy brown.

Elissa sighed as she placed the newspaper down and took a long drink of tea. Finally she said, "You haven't read the Prophet today?"

"No. I don't get it brought to our flat anyways. You know I never really bothered with the news." Lily said indifferently.

"Yeah well you might want to bother yourself with it today...Lisa wrote an interesting article about you and James." Elissa said with another sigh.

Lily's eyes narrowed as she quickly took the newspaper from Elissa and her eyes scanned the article that had been written.

_Potter with heartbreak?_

_Oddly enough James Potter has been tired out and nervous these past few days and we wonder whether it has to do with his intense relationship with Lily Evans. I remember her well from Beauxbatons as a heartbreaker so this could be a silent agonized scream from James and a hint about breakup for the young famous Quidditch player. More on pg 4 and advice from professionals about relationships. Lisa Spangeil_

Lily looked up from the article, her emerald eyes blazing with anger. "Who does she think she is? She remembers me from Beauxbatons? A silent agonized scream from James? I don't know about breaking hearts but the next time I see her I'll be breaking-"

"Lily calm down. Your red headness is taking over." Elissa said with a slight smile and Lily took a breath knowing Elissa was right.

"Don't let her bug ya Lilybunny. She's just jealous of you from Beauxbatons cause all the guys would look at you and not her. Geesh she's a major grudge holder and she really needs to get over it!" Julia said flipping her hair back out of her face.

Lily sighed and rested her chin on her hand as she looked off into space. She never liked the tension between her and Lisa at Beauxbatons. She had tried to fix it and be friendly towards her but Lisa was always cold and sarcastic towards her throughout their seven years there. Lily didn't quite understand.

But did she really want Lisa to ruin her perfectly fine day that she was going to go shopping with her friends and then dancing that evening? It would be a waste of good time meant to have fun. The article bothered her yes but she wouldn't let it ruin her day completely.

"C'mon lets go shopping." Julia said patting Lily's hand and pulling her up along with her and nodding to Elissa to follow them.

The three of them made their way out of the crowded place and Lily put some coins on the counter for the tea she had purchased.

Since they were going to a muggle dance club they decided to head over into muggle London to shop for some interesting outfits to wear that evening. Lily wanted to shock James tonight with a sexy head turning outfit. The evening promised a night filled with fun and laughter.

The first store they stepped into was called Jenny's. Lily walked over to some appealing tops and began to make her way through the ones hanging on a rack. She looked through absolutely scandalous ones with sayings on the shirts that she wouldn't even let Sirius or James eyes fall upon.

Lily's hand caught on one shirt in particular and she took it off the rack examining it closely. It was a short dark green halter top and it had a shimmer to it. Lily smiled with triumph and she went over to the jeans section of the store. However she couldn't find a pair of jeans to go with her top that she had found.

"Ohhh Lilybunny did you find something already? I like!" Julia said as she looked at the top Lily picked out.

Elissa came over with a hot red mini-skirt along with a black tube top. She seemed to have her outfit all picked out Lily thought. But of course not as Julia soon shrieked, "SHOES!"

So Elissa and Lily paid for their finds and then followed Julia out to find some shoes. They came upon a small nook of a store down the street that carried shoes so they all entered with grins on their faces as they talked about that evening.

Elissa immediately found a sexy pair of black heels to wear with her outfit. They were only 1 inch high since she was tall as it was. Lily browsed around and surprisingly found a pair of tan shoes with little beaded embellishments on the top. It had a bit of a heel making Lily feel a bit taller than her usual 5.4

Julia around but didn't find anything to her interest. She had about a hundred shoes at home so it was quite possible that she would find a likeable pair there when they got home.

They quickly left than the store and Lily checked her watch as they headed down the street to find another clothing spot for Lily and Julia. It was already 4:47 in the late afternoon! Lily pushed open the door and the warmth flew over her cold cheeks as she walked in the back where the jeans were. Luckily she found a pair she was looking for. They were faded bellbottom jeans that fit snugly all the way down.

Julia purchased a short dark teal navy mini dress and then they were off to home to get ready for the evening. It was an evening full of promise and nothing was going to mess it up. Not that Lily knew of.

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Lily ordered a pizza when they got home to her flat and Julia's. She went to her room and assembled the outfit that she was going to wear on her bed. She smiled excitedly and then went to take a quick shower leaving the pizza money with Elissa.

Stepping into the shower she used her favorite coconut shampoo and smoothing conditioner. She hummed softly as she stepped out of the shower and put the towel around her hair like a turban. Lily pulled on her bathrobe as she finished drying herself then opened the door and left it open so it wouldn't be so steamy for the next person.

She found Elissa and Julia already in the kitchen munching on the pizza so she grabbed a slice and poured herself some water as she sat down next to them.

"Yumm I haven't eaten pizza in a long time." Julia said with her mouth full of the delicious food.

"Me neither. All Kadmus has been cooking is his native Greek food." Elissa said with a smile at the thought of her lover.

Lily chewed her pizza thoughtfully remembering when Elissa had begun dating Kadmus. It was probably eight months ago that they had met. Lily supposed it had been love at first sight because she was with Elissa having dinner with her and Elissa spotted him. Surprisingly he came right over and then they began chatting. It all seemed to go from there.

"Kadmus is fit!" Julia said with a grin as Elissa raised an eyebrow at her. Julia just raised her hands up and smiled.

"Yep he's nice looking." Lily said with sweet smile at Elissa.

"Okay, okay I know something that will make sure you guys stay away from him. I've meant to tell you awhile ago but there has been so much going on that I haven't had a chance...Kadmus and I are...well we're engaged." Elissa said with a shy smile uncertain of how her friends would take this.

"Elissa!" Julia exclaimed in an excited voice but her eyes were wide with amazement as well. Lily as well exchanged a surprised look with her friend.

"Oh my frig, you're the first one whose getting married! Are you sure you're ready Elissa? You guys are so young, we all are." Lily said with careful precision as she talked. She didn't want to insult her friend.

"I'm pretty yeah. I love the guy…he makes me so happy." Elissa said and she looked down at her hands as she talked.

Lily smiled warmheartedly and she put her hand on Elissa's hand. "If you're happy then we're happy right Jul?"

"Yep! How bout we chat about this wedding later cause it's time to get ready for the night eh?" Julia said with sparkling blue eyes and she grinned eagerly.

"Ok then!" Elissa said with a smile as well and she went and followed Julia to her room where she was going to get her makeup done.

Lily shook her head with a slight smile at the eagerness of Julia. She was the partier out of the three of them. Lily enjoyed a good time once in awhile and tonight she was in the perfect mood for it, especially with James.

As Lily was just clearing away the rubbish from the pizza she heard a slight tapping on the window and to her amazement it was an owl she had never seen before. A snobbish pure black owl with a white spot on its head.

Se felt her insides immediately go cold with nervousness as she went to open the window. Whose owl was this? Lily brought a hand tentatively towards the owl and it snapped at her. She jumped away from it and glared at it as it dropped the scroll and then flew out the window.

With slightly shaking hands she slowly opened the scroll and read it with unbelieving eyes.

_Miss Evans,_

_It is time you should know about a certain piece of information concerning James Potter and your relationship with him. I've noticed the past few months you have grown closer towards him and it pains me somewhat to tell you that he is playing you up. _

_Why you ask? But of course it is quite simple. Albus Dumbledore overheard a prophecy made about you and he knew that the Dark Lord would want you in his position, for you have powers you know not of yet but soon will. _

_Back to subject I'm going to tell you bluntly. Dumbledore told Sirius and James to find a girl named Lily Evans with auburn colored hair and bright emerald eyes. Is it too big of a coincidence that they were both at the Quidditch match when you first met both of them? Hmmm indeed. _

_The Dark Lord would like to speak to you about these certain powers you a muggleborn have. Don't be so trusting towards your peers in the Order. I know there is a spy just as you and a few others do. _

_Lucius Malfoy. _

Lily's eyes filled with tears as she finished the last of the letter and she angrily swiped them away with her hand. She swallowed tightly and walked quickly to her room and locked the door as she pulled the towel off her head savagely.

Tonight was the night for revenge. When she would arrive at the club with Elissa and Julia he wouldn't know what hit him when he would see her. Oh no, he wouldn't be able to touch because she wasn't going to let him near her. But when he did she would then confront him and ask him why he did this to her.

Why did stuff like this happen to her?

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A/N: Finally I'm done this chapter. And this is when the wheel starts really rolling. Lots of stuff to happen in the next few chapters. I'm going to New York City for two weeks. I'm leaving tomorrow so I'll be gone. But if you guys review a whole bunch then maybe I'll pop out another chapter during my stay since I'll be in contact with a computer. Hope you're all having a good summer so far! Tootles.


	13. Happy New Year's?

A/N: Hello my dearies! Well the trip was amazingly fun and I had written a good outline in July and then my laptop crashed on me. It was very aggravating. I'm sorry guys but I finally got my laptop back. Also this chapter gave me some grief when I began writing it…more at the end.

Disclaimer: Blahh it's JK Rowling's!

Chapter 13 of After the Quidditch Game

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Lily walked to her room quickly and shut the door behind her thinking fervently. Could it be perhaps that she was just jumping to conclusions? Was this some sort of ploy from Lucius Malfoy to tear her away from James and make her feel isolated from him? It probably wouldn't be the first time in Lucius's life that he screwed with other people's lives.

She rubbed her eyes hard with the back of her hand and then thought of the next pondering question of this 'special' power that would be of an advantage to Voldemort? What kind of power did she have was the million dollar question.

Lily sighed and sat down at her desk looking into the mirror. Her emerald eyes were standing out considerably in her pale white face and they had a betrayed almost broken look to them. She grabbed a brush and pulled it through her hair roughly not feeling the way the bristles began to tear at her scalp.

Finally the brush hit a sensitive spot and she threw it to the floor with a scowl. Suddenly she stood up and looked off through the window thinking. It could be true that Lucius was bull shitting her and it could also be very well that there was some truth to the snaky letter her sent her. Maybe she just got a little too dramatic when she read the letter.

Lily breathed in deeply and promised to herself that she would mention it toJames tonight…sometime. There would be plenty of time for that to happen.

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"Ohh sexy Lily! James is gonna be following you around like a lost puppy." Julia said with a playful grin as she stood behind her friend while they looked into the long mirror.

Lily was wearing snug faded jeans along with a dark green shimmery tube top. On her feet she was wearing a sleek pair of black high heels. Her hair was falling down straight and a few bangs were falling into her face. Julia had got her to wear a bit more makeup than usual so her eyes had the smoky brown look bringing out the beauty from her emerald orbs and she had sheer lipgloss.

Lily smiled back at Julia and then moved off to inspect Elissa. Her long blonde hair was done up in dramatic bouncy curls and she had bright red lipstick on. Her brown eyes just had a light shade of tan eye shadow to make them softer looking. She had on a short tight black mini dress. She had red sparkly stilettos on her feet accentuating the outfit. She would definitely draw the eye of her boyfriend.

Surprisingly Julia was wearing a quite simple outfit. She had a dark demin mini skirt and a dark purple halter-top that had a round clip at the chest emphasizing that area. She had big silver hoops in her ears and her favorite purple high heels. She had done her makeup elaborately with wild bright shades of purple and soft pinks. Julia just put on a simple gloss and then smiled at her two friends.

"Let's go party nay?" Julia asked with a flirty smile.

"Alright." Elissa said with a grin of her own.

Lily just smiled and pulled on her poofy dark maroon jacket.

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"Wonder where they are?" Lily asked as she glanced around the large room of the club.

"Yeah…man it's big in here." Elissa said with awe as she looked around herself.

The girls had headed off to the club after they apparated near the place. Julia had managed to get passes from the manager who knew her from the musical she was in. Luckily they had all gotten passes and so she gave the other three passes to James to pass them along.

Now that they had gotten in pass through the super huge long lineups they peered through the dancers who had just begun to go on the floor. Lily nodded for the two girls to follow her so they could explore the club and look for James, Sirius and Remus at the same time. Elissa's boyfriend was coming later on since they had only gotten to the club at 8pm.

The club consulted of one huge dance floor but there was an upstairs with a railing. You could go up on the neon colored stairs to look or sit down in the comfortable plush chairs around separate tables to put your drinks on. The bar was upstairs but there was a mini one downstairs as well.

There was a huge disco ball on the ceiliong in the middle that reflected light into millions of diamonds brazing the floor. Big neon colored bouncers were rolling over the surface of the milling dancers on the floor. Loud techno dance music was blasting from the huge speakers on all of the walls.

It was dark but light enough to make out faces. Lily smiled saucily to a dark haired male who was standing over with a group of his friends. She felt laughter bubble up inside herself as he winked at her. Tonight was going to be an adventure all right with lots of drama as well.

Lily felt a tug on her arm and she turned to see Julia nodding where James and Sirius were walking towards them. Oddly enough Remus wasn't there and she knew he had been planning on coming. _Wonder where he is_ she thought to herself.

Lily gulped as she eyed James up. His black hair was messily arranged as usual and he was wearing a pair of slightly loose dark demin jeans that complimented his long lean legs. He had a simple brown polo shirt that accented his deep set stormy hazel eyes. He sent her a soft smile watching her closely.

Sirius sent her a quirky grin and she noted that he was wearing gray slacks with a navy blue vintage shirt that had swirly white writing on it that she couldn't make out. His silky black hair was falling elegantly in his face and playing up his seductive grey eyes. Indeed they both looked very… nice.

Lily returned Sirius's smile but only let her eyes catch James. He was watching her with a thoughtful expression in his eyes and she knew that he knew something was up.

They finally walked over and soon all five of them were standing together and talked for a bit. The guys had never met Elissa so they chatted with her for a bit. Finally Julia spoke up when a really groovy tune started blasting from the speakers.

"Where's Remus?" Lily asked with curiousity.

"Umm...poor old Remus wasn't exactly feeling good tonight so he told us to go on without him. Of course we had to listen to him." Sirius said with a grin but Lily could tell there was something else more important but she didn't question it.

"C'mon girls let go dance!" Julia pulled Elissa and Lily's hand to follow her as she made her way out to the middle of the dance floor where hundreds of other people were dancing. Lily felt herself soar inside and she began dancing to the beat of the song with her two girls.

"Something happen between you and James?" Elissa shouted over the loud music.

Lily looked at Julia and Elissa who were both watching her carefully. Obviously they knew that something just wasn't right with her and James.

Lily shrugged nonchalantly not really feeling like divulging the whole thing at that point. "No not really. Just regular stuff."

"Well if it goes from regular stuff to serious stuff tell us k?" Julia said with a soft caring smile. Lily nodded feeling a lump go up inside of her slowly but she swallowed fiercely.

"Sure." Lily said with a grin of her own.

The three of them danced together for a while just having fun and letting themselves go like they had when they were teens at the dances stuffy old Beauxbatons would hold.

Strong hands came up behind her and they found her waist and slowly got the rythum to her dancing along with her body. Elissa quirked her eyebrows and Julia let out a tinkling laugh and turned to dance with Elissa. Lily felt the person take her hand in his big one and she felt him lean down and whisper in a husky voice.

"Wanna go get a drink?"

Lily let out a sardonic laugh and said, "I don't usually accept drinks from men I don't know."

The guy let out a deep voice chuckle that made the hairs on her back stand up and he said, "Don't worry, I'm a good boy."

Lily finally turned around tired with the one sided conversation it felt like she was having. She liked to see the person's face with whom she was talking to. She had to look up to see his face since he was so tall. The young man had coal black hair and green eyes that she almost found herself lost in. He had a very strong looking physique and she smiled as he sized her up close as well. This was ironically the guy whoshe had seenwhen she entered the club.

"I'm Ryland." He said with his deep voice.

Lily quirked her eyebrows and said, "Just Ryland?"

"Yep." Ryland said with a chuckle.

"Alright. I'm just Lily." Lily said with her lips pursed in a flirtatious way.

"So you wanna go get a drink with me?" Ryland asked nodding up the balcony way.

"Sure. I'll meet you up there." Lily said and then she disappeared in between the dancing people looking for her friends.

Lily pushed her way through people and then stopped. Was it out of revenge that she was going up to drink with this guy that she had just met? She had already reasoned with herself not to jump to conclusions and that it was bloody Lucius Malfoy writing to her.But another part of Lily reasoned with her saying that it was very plausible being the truth. Julia had mentioned it a few months back the very idea that James could have been asked to come find her.

Lily pushed her way out and felt her stomach drop as she saw James all over a girl over to the side. She was dancing up _very _closely to him. She squinted up over to where he was and then with a toss of her hair she stomped over to where she found Julia dancing with Sirius.

"Lily! Where's your friend?" Julia asked with a grin as she danced with Sirius. Lily felt as if she was in slow motion and then she snapped back. She didn't want to trouble her friend so she nodded her head with a smile then went off to find Elissa but noticed her dancing intimately with a dark haired boy who Lily assumed was her boyfriend.

Lily wrinked her nose in aggravation and then walked briskly up to the balcony where Ryland was sitting down at the bar looking out towards the dance floor. When his gaze fell on her he grinned at her handsomely. She smiled back and sat next to him.

"What d'you want to drink?" Ryland asked with vigor.

"Whatever you're having." Lily said without much enthusiasm as her thoughts strayed to where James had been dancing with that girl.

Ryland grinned to himself viciously but Lily didn't notice. "You heard the lady, Joe. Two of my usual."

Lily turned around and took the drink that Ryland handed her eagerly. The substance burned down her throat as her eyes watered as she drank it. Trying to smile at Ryland without making it look like a grimace she grabbed his hand and nodded at him to follow her to the floor.

Making sure she was in a clear distance of James so he would see her dancing with this guy Lily began to dance close to Ryland grinning and feeling slightly odd. Lily looked at Ryland oddly as he danced closely behind her but abruptly sound slide away from her senses and all she could see were bright neon colored lights rolling over her vision. Suddenly black swallowed all of the multi colored lights, Lily's knees buckled and she slid to the floor.

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James scowled as he watched Lily follow some dark haired up the to the balcony areawhere the bar was. He was currently dancing with some really pretty dark haired girl but he nodded to her and then disappeared out off to the lounging area. When he squeezed past all the dancers he pulled a hand frustratingly through his hair growling under his breath.

What was Lily onto? He knew when he had arrived that evening that she wasn't in the best of spirits. Her emerald eyes were usually guarded and unknowing but tonight he had seen that they were raw with hurt and betrayal? He wasn't sure but he knew she had been upset by something before she had come. More importantly though why was she shunning him? Obviously that something that happened before had something to do with him.

James sighed and shook his head in defeat. A familiar voice shook him out of his contemplation and he looked over to see Sirius. "Mate what're you doing? You haven't been doing much dancing tonight. What's up?" Sirius asked James with a hint of worry in his eyes.

"Nothing mate. It's just…have you seen Lily tonight?" James asked Sirius in a depressed voice.

"Yeah a bit. I danced with a few girls that I met tonight and I wanted a dance with her but she had disappeared with Julia or someone." Sirius said in an offhand voice wondering if James REALLY knew where she was.

"I saw her disappear alright, with a bloody nother guy!" James said in a discouraged grumble of his voice.

Sirius sighed and stood back with his hands knotted together on the back of his head looking out into the crowd. James looked out in the crowd as well and he stared up to the balcony area to see if Lily was there. _Must've gotten her drink with that guy already _he thought darkly to himself.

"Mate that's Lily over there eh?" Sirius asked suddenly in a strange voice and James looked to where Sirius was focusing on. There Lily was dancing in a wobbly sort of way and the dark haired guy had his bloody hands all over her! James made an angry grunt and glared at the couple then he suddenly felt his insides go cold as Lily somewhat pulled herself away from the guy with a dazed look on her face.

"He's got her drugged." James said flatly with anger in his voice. He glided quickly to where she was and began to worry as he watched her walk a bit disoriented. Right when he got to her she collapsed to the floor her emerald eyes not showing that she could see him and he looked at the guy next to him.

The guy made a move to grab Lily but James picked her up bridal style and glared at him coldly. "If I ever find out what the hell you slipped into her drink you'll be sorry you ever did." He said angrily and then swept away from the crowd slowly gathering.

Surprisingly enough Sirius wasn't there when he returned to the spot they were. Turning around he saw that Sirius was off back with the guy telling him off. Suddenly Sirius punched the guy in his jaw and then stalked off angrily with Elissa and Julia following him with shocked looks on their faces.

Once all of them were out of the club James turned to Elissa and Julia with Lily still in his arms passed out. Sirius had managed to fill them in on what the sleezbag back in the club had done to Lily and the two girls did not look happy.

"Look I'm gonna bring Lily back to my apartment with me. I'm good at healing charms and Lily is going to need them when she awakes." James said seriously daring the other three to argue with him. Julia nodded for she trusted James and Sirius shrugged as if knowing his mate would take care of Lily.

Elissa however was a different story. Her jaw was set stubbornly and she was ready for an argument. "Oh you think its best that she went with you huh? How d'you know that Lily might just want to wake up at home in a familiar place and not some unfamiliar place with you there. Correct me if I'm wrong but it didn't look like you two were buddy buddy tonight anyhow."

James let out a frustrated sigh and he said in a hard voice, "Look there's nothing bad going between Lily and I. That idiot back there slipped something in her bloody drink and she's gonna need the healing charms I know."

Elissa opened her mouth to argue some more but Julia broke in quietly. "James is right Liss. Let's go home. She'll be ok but James will make her better. I trust him so that should be good enough for you. C'mon lets go."

"Happy New Years, that's what you muggles say right?" Sirius asked smiling weakly and Julia shook her head with a smile of her own. They gave a wave then it was only James, Lily and Sirius left.

"Mate you coming over tonight?" James asked as he readjusted Lily's form.

"Nah I gotta go help Moody. Woot." Sirius said in a non excited voice and James gave him a sympathetic grin.

"Ah well it could be worse. Anyways I'm going home. See ya Padfoot." James said with a nod.

"Later Prongs."

James placed Lily's form on the huge king bed smiling softly at her hoping she would be okay when she would awaken the next morning. He kissed her on the forehead then slipped of his clothes until he was only clad in his boxers. Sliding underneath the blankets he turned off the light and then let his head hit the pillow peacefully.

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A/N: Man it took me awhile to get the right footing on this chapter. It gave me bloody hell but I finally found my nitch. A couple of revelations next chappie. Hope you're all having a good vacation! REVIEW please! I've got the 14th chapter begun. Tootles.


	14. Confrontations and Prophecies

A/N: Hey y'all. And here's another chappie up pretty fast if I say so myself. I'm going tomorrow and all of next week so I wanted to pop this one out. Hope you like it and review!

Disclaimer: Puhlease, if this story/characters really belonged to me then I would be making millions. Unfortunately they aren't mine so I have to settle at writing fanics haha. It's JK Rowling's people, if you didn't get what I was babbling before.

Chapter 14 of After the Quidditch Game

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Lily awoke the next morning with a soft sigh and she pulled a hand slowly to wipe the sleep from her eyes.

"Have a good sleep?" A deep male's voice immediately broke the sleep away from Lily and she turned to see a half naked James smiling at her slightly.

"Oh god tell me we didn't sleep together?" Lily shrieked in a slightly hysterical voice and she jumped out of the bed with a great leap but then hissed as her head gave a particularly nasty throb.

"Would it be that horrible?" James asked in a dry voice.

"Nooo I mean YES! I don't remember anything from last night except that I have one blasted headache and it can't be from drinking too much bloody apple juice so you'll have to enlighten me." Lily said sarcastically and she sat down on the floor clutching her head, eyes closed.

James got off the bed and sat down next to her taking her hands from her head. Lily felt herself warm slightly at his touch and the fact that he was wearing only boxers.

"You began to dance with this dark haired guy and then he must have got you a drink but I'm not sure because you weren't really talking to me last night." James said in a quiet voice.

Lily's emerald eyes widened and last nights events came whirling back at her with a surprisingly strong thud of visuals. She remembered her hostility towards James the night before, dancing with the girls and then the dark haired boy Ryland coming up to her. He had ordered her a drink and she took his offer. Lucius's letter. It was coming back all right, in painful strings of scenes flashing in her mind.

Lily pulled her hands away from James and moved away from him. "When were you going to tell me James?" Lily asked with a calm voice but she felt anything but calm inside.

James noticed her sudden change in personality cocked his head and said, "Tell you what?"

"That Dumbledore told you to come find me." Was her cold reply back.

Time seemed to freeze and James felt his heart almost stop. Of course that would be what she wanted to know. He had wondered when she was going to come and ask him that and on many occasions he had wanted to tell her. He didn't know what stopped him from telling her. Probably the biggest possibility that she wouldn't believe him and he would lose all of what they had built up even though he was a pro Quidditch player surrounded by the wizarding media.

"Look Lily, I-" James begin but Lily cut across him.

"So it's true. God I should have listened to Julia in the beginning. Was I just some pawn that you needed to come and find for dear old Dumbledore? I can't believe I even went out with you on those bloody dates. You were probably reporting back to Dumbledore about me securing the idea that I was 'that girl' who he needed. How could I have been so friggin naïve?" Lily said unbelievably with an angry quiver to her voice.

She stood up quickly wrapping her arms around herself protectively since she was still in her dancing clothes from last night and to say the least they weren't exactly cozily warm. She had left her jacket at the club since she hadn't brought it to James as she hadn't been in the condition to do so..

"Lily listen to me! I'm being serious, I. Saw. You. At. The. Quidditch. Game. I didn't know you were the Lily Evans. Something about you drew me to you. Dumbledore didn't even give us a bloody description of you. All he said was to find a Lily Evan's." James said desperately but Lily's eyes were now shining with unshed tears.

"No shit Dumbledore didn't give you a description! I got a bloody letter from Lucius Malfoy telling me Dumbledore gave you the description. James, Lucius Malfoy told me about this whole deal before you did. How could you!" Lily sobbed out in a cracking voice.

"Lily you believed Lucius Maloy? Are you kidding me?" James asked in a furious voice but Lily suddenly ran from the room down to the doorway.

James hissed under his breath and ran quickly to the doorway where he managed to grab Lily's arm tightly. Lily flipped around and looked at him with a flaming stare her emerald eyes shimmering. "Let go of me James." She said with a controlled voice.

"You can't go out there in the cold, you'll freeze." James said darkly holding tightly to her arm.

Lily laughed bitterly and said, "Didn't know you cared THAT much about the pawn you were told to find."

"That's bullshit Lily. You know I care." James said beginning to get angry.

"Have a funny way of showing your care. Usually you tell the person you care about the truth. Friends do that James." Lily said with a sob and she yanked her arm from his grip and ran down through the path to his house to the road her auburn hair lying out underneath her.

James hissed under his breath and slipped on his shoes then went running out on his street yelling her name. But he saw her dark green top disappear in through the thickly falling snow. She had apparated someplace else.

"Dammit." James cursed and he trudged back to his flat feeling his insides twist violently. She didn't believe a single word that he had said. And how he had feared she wouldn't when he had begun to think about telling her earlier when they were getting to know each other.

"Good job Potter. There goes my last chance with her since she'll hate me forever." James said depressingly as he shut the door to his flat.

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Lily ran and ran in the cold snow. She had apparated and gotten the place wrong. Her emotions were so hysterical that she had messed up the place completely. _It's still snowy and cold so that must be a good sign_ she thought to herself miserably. She glanced around her surroundings and noticed a big gate that stood unlocked leading up towards a castle.

Her curiosity piqued she got up but transfigured a jacket and then she jogged up to the gate pushing it open. Lily saw a breathtaking view of a frozen lake below and then up ahead was a huge castle that had just been dusted with a coating of sparkling snow. Lily saw a forest to the right of it and felt a twinge of familiarity, as she looked it over. It was the forbidden forest she had studied about so much in school. That meant she was at Hogwarts!

Lily pondered about going up to the old castle but then a sudden thought occurred to her. _Hogwarts meant the headmaster would be residing there which meant Dumbledore must be there_ she thought with a small bit of triumph. Lily's eyes narrowed and she began walking briskly up to the castle. She wanted to know about what all that nonsense of a hidden power Lucius had wrote about.

Finally she was at the front door. She pulled a hand through her hair and then pushed the door open ready to go talk to Dumbledore.

She made her way through the front entrance but didn't see anyone. Lily turned around and then saw someone turn a corner. She took off running and then yelled, "Excuse me!" The witch turned around and Lily observed that she was an older woman in her mid fifties with black hair pulled into a tight bun.

The woman looked at Lily through her spectacles and said, "Yes?"

"I'm a visitor but I came here seeking to talk with Dumbledore. Could you direct me to where his office is please." Lily said politely hoping he was there.

"Yes he is here actually. Follow me." The lady said and so Lily did. She took in the building and her eyes grew large at the many descending staircases.

"My name is Minerva Mcgonagall. I'm assuming this is your first time at Hogwarts Miss..?" Mcgonagall asked her as they walked briskly down another corridor.

"Evans. Lily Evans. Yes this is. I was educated at Beauxbatons Academy." Lily said with a smile.

"Ah I see. Oh well here we are. Pumpkin Juice." Mcgonagall said in a clear voice and then the statues began to move revealing a staircase.

"Thank you." Lily said gratefully and she walked up the stairs with sudden nervous feelings. She had never really talked to him because he always had to leave Order meetings as soon as it ended.

Lily found herself facing a door when she got to the top. She timidly knocked the door and then a cheerful voice say "Come in!"

Lily turned the knob and she looked up to see Dumbledore smiling at her but there seemed to be a hint of surprise in his twinkling blue eyes.

"I don't think we ever formally met. Lily Evans, sir." Lily said with her hand outstretched.

Dumbledore's face broke out into a big smile and he said in his normal intelligent voice, "Albus Dumbledore. Very nice to meet you Lily. Have a seat." Dumbledore gestured towards the seat directly across from him after they shook hands.

Lily sat down feeling the nerves go down slowly. There was something severely calming about being in the presence of Dumbledore. She didn't quite know what is was about him because he was hardly the picture with his long white hair tucked in his belt and his half moon glasses.

"Well Miss Evans I hardly would think you have come to talk about the new flavor they released with Bertie Bott's Flavored jelly beans. I did have a lovely spirited discussion with one of the other professors…but alas I am getting off a topic I do not know of yet." Dumbledore said in a serene voice and he waved his wand suddenly.

"Tea?" He asked and he handed her a cup of the warm drink.

"Well I have questions that I need to know the answers of." Lily said honestly meeting Dumbledore's blue stare.

"Go on." He said with a nod of his head.

"What special powers do I have that no one has cared to fill me in about." Lily said in a bitter voice and Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.

"I will answer the question but I have one of my own. Is there something the matter Lily?" He asked her in his serene voice and Lily felt a dam break inside of her. For the next quarter of the hour Lily found herself spilling every single detail about the evening before and then her fight with James. Later Lily would remember how easy it had been talk to this older man and how refreshing it had been to get it all out.

"Hmm. I see we do have a problem on hand." Dumbledore mused with his hands together and he looked off into space thinking.

Lily waited for a few minutes and then said in a quiet voice, "Sir?"

Dumbledore snapped out of his thoughts. "Ah yes well I will relieve you of your questions and concerns to the best of my abilities. It is indeed true that you have a special power but we will get to that later. I asked of James and maybe Sirius I can't remember now, I asked them to find a Lily Evans. I didn't give them a description so I don't really know what Lucius Malfoy was spouting on about. You don't believe James could have not known it was you?" Dumbledore asked thoughtfully.

"Well it seems a bit to coincidental." Lily says with her chin on her hand leaning on her elbow.

"But not impossible." Dumbledore reminded her and she grimaced.

"Yes I suppose it isn't impossible. Maybe I was too angry to see his reasoning's. I don't know anymore." Lily said with a sigh.

"Yes well think about it. Well we've come to the million dollar question of what exactly your special power is." Dumbledore said watching Lily intently and Lily felt as if she were being x-rayed under his blue eyes. Lily nodded for him to continue and Dumbledore let out a sigh.

He stood up and he opened a cabinet where Lily saw a reflection of silvery light bounce on the receiving door. Dumbledore pulled out his wand and prodded at a bowl inside the cabinet until he had what he wanted. Turning back to sit down he opened up his palm and revealed a very young lady with her hands out like a silent prayer, her lips moving.

Lily's eyes widened as she realized what she was seeing. _A prophecy made about me_ she pondered to herself.

"Unless you have already guessed this is a seer who told me a prophecy a long time ago of a woman who would come into our world as a muggle but have great powers with her all seeing emerald eyes and by the name of Lily. Here it is." Dumbledore said and he prodded the figure on his palm with his wand and it opened its mouth to speak.

There is one who will come to our world as a muggle but will have a greater power than most wizards and witches.

_Night will befall and she shall descend into a fit of sleep._

_She has some of the abilities of a seer through her dreams. _

_The one with the shining emerald eyes will soon come to us to lead our army to victory from the Dark Lord._

_The one who has this gift will mayhap be locked away into nightmares or dreams for hours._

_She will have a weakness to sleep for the great sight needs rest at times. _

The dreamy voice faded away and so did the figure. Lily watched it wisp away in the air and she felt a knot of unwanted feelings inside. But she still had questions for she didn't quite understand the whole gist of the prophecy.

"Dumbledore what exactly can I do?" Lily asked hesitantly.

"You can see the past, present and future in your dreams." Dumbledore said easily.

Lily twirled her finger around a spare strand of hair letting this knowledge wash over her.

"So Lily now is the question, have you had any of these occurrences happen to you yet?" Dumbledore asked seriously.

"Only recently I find. I had a very realistic one of a muggle daycare being trashed. There were other dreams but I don't really know what to make of them." Lily said thoughtfully.

"Hmm well your gift might work itself a lot but then other times not so much." Dumbledore told her seriously and she smiled at him.

"Thank you so much or clearing this up. I am ever so grateful." Lily said happily.

"Yes, it was lovely to chat with you Miss Evans. But I want to warn you to be very careful. You know already that Voldemort wants you on his side with your different ability of Seeing. Deatheater's will try and get you so just make sure you are on your guard at all times. But now do go and clear things up with James." Dumbledore said with a chuckle and Lily stood up to leave but then something came speeding out from her memory of the note Lucius sent her.

"One more question. Is there a spy in the Order?" Lily asked him seriously and Dumbledore's smiling face fell.

"Indeed there is Miss Evans. Our group will be more secretive and selective of what we talk of. Make sure to remember all of your dreams because you never know when they might be trying to tell you something." Dumbledore said wearily and Lily noted for the first time that evening he looked more older.

"I will." Lily promised and then she waved to Dumbledore before stepping into his hearth to floor back to her flat.

Lily ended up at her flat and ran into her room to get a change of clothes. She found her kitten Doe snoozing away on her comforter and she blew a kiss to it. Lily slipped into a pair of brown slacks and a cream colored long sleeved shirt. She combed through her hair and then applied a bit of lip gloss.

She needed to go and see James. Lily slipped on her winter clothing and then turned to the door to apparate.

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A/N: Finally we're getting leeway on the James and Lily relationship! Yaaaaaay you don't know how happy that makes me haha. Now look how fast of an update that was! We've got a few more chapters coming because a certain big revelation will be made in one of these next chapters muahahaha. Next chapter might take a week or two since I am leaving tomorrow and all of next week. Now bring me up to 200 reviews guys pleeeeease and I'll love you forever.

Lata.


	15. New Beginnings

A/N: Yay we're over 200. There are approximately only about 4 or 5 chapters left I'm thinking. But there will be a BIG event happening really soon so stay tuned. Oh yeah if you're wondering when the next update will happen check out my profile cause I usually say how the progess on the next chapter is coming along.

Disclaimer: Well…it's not mine. How depressing. Nope it's the fantastic JK Rowling's.

Chapter 15 of After the Quidditch Game

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Lily breathed out in a nervous sigh as she looked at James door. Her sigh turned into a slight white cloud of breath and she started to silently argue with herself whether she should come tomorrow and let him be. He must be so aggravated with her roller coaster of unsteady feelings.

She grimaced and then squared her shoulders as she opened the door and peered in. She quietly slipped off her winter knee boots and her other winter clothing. Lily listened for movement but didn't hear anything as she walked down the hallway. The sound of hard breathing seized Lily and she found herself moving to the living room.

There on the couch James had fallen asleep on his maroon couch. He had an unsettled expression on his face and his forehead was furrowed. Lily walked over to him and slid underneath him putting his head on her lap gingerly. Lily suddenly felt a pull in her sense to put her hand on his head. She could tell from his expression that he must be dreaming of something that wasn't exactly happy.

Lily placed her hand on his forehead and she began to stroke his head. Her eyes soon closed but she kept stroking his head with her soft hand. Unexpectedly Lily began to see slices of scenes taking up the darkness in her mind. Green flashes of light went ringing in her head but then it was quickly replaced with a dark cloaked man holding out his wand menacingly.

Lily squinted her eyes and then she saw the previous camp that was in her dream awhile go with the same teenagers running around. Why was James too dreaming about this? But another flash of a scene came crashing through and an ice blue spell came hurtling out of nowhere at James.

"James!" Lily jerked out from the dreamlike trance breathing hard, her heart racing wildly. James eyes were opened and they widened even bigger as he noticed her sitting there underneath him. He sat up got up from the couch looking at Lily with that bemused expression.

"Lily? What're you doing here?" James asked her in a confused voice.

"I- I came here to say sorry but I saw you on the couch sleeping but you looked like you were having a nightmare so I sat down to wake you but then it seemed like I sunk into your mind and saw your dream!" Lily said in a fast voice to explain herself.

"Wait….did you just see 'me' get hit by a blue spell?" James asked her with a bit of uncertainty in his voice.

Lily bobbed her head up and down. "I saw flashes of scenes of your dream."

"Hmm. That's odd…that you would be able to see my nightmare. Erm so I thought you were still mad?" James asked her with a confused expression in his hazel eyes.

Lily suddenly found herself looking at his lips and then back up to his eyes. A want to taste him overwhelmed her and she threw her arms around his neck and brought her lips to meet his. Lily could feel the surprise reverberate from his body but then he kissed her back. His tongue slipped into her mouth and she inhaled deeply letting his scent of wizarding cologne and cinnamon fill her. His hands found her waist and he pulled her closer.

Lily broke apart slowly and then opened her eyes to see James watching her intently. "I wanted to say sorry…I talked to Dumbledore and he told me that he did indeed send you off. It just seemed to be too much of a coincidence." Lily said in a hoarse voice and she laid her head on his shoulder.

James walked over to the couch and she followed then he nudged her to look at him. "I would have been just as doubtful." James said seriously and Lily nodded.

"So we're ok?" Lily asked quietly.

"More than ok." James said with a smile and he leaned in to give her another kiss. Lily felt her insides glow with happiness as she kissed him back.

Finally Lily let her head rest on his chest and he stroked her long hair softly. "There's a spy in the Order, did you know that?"

"Yes…it seems unreal but Dumbledore told me a few weeks back. The Death Eater's know who is in the Order so they are more easily tracking us. It's getting more dangerous so we must be on our guard." James said wearily.

Lily sighed and then she pondered to herself whether she should tell James about her gift or not. "When I talked to Dumbledore today he revealed to me that I have a gift. I have the gift of Seeing in my dreams."

James let out a deep breath and then said, "That's why Lucius and his acquaintance Death Eater followed you to my flat thst time. Voldemort must have known about the prophecy before and ordered them to come find you. You're going to have to be on more guard! Wait a minute, maybe that's how you saw my dream." James mused softly and Lily slid over on the other side of the couch on her back thinking deeply.

"Since I'm just getting used to my gift it must by why I only saw flashes of it. In time when I have honed my skills it might be easier." Lily said thoughtfully and then she stood up slowly.

James watched her grab his soft fleecy blanket and wrap it around her. She walked back over and snuggled next to him quietly. They sat there for awhile just thinking and enjoying each others company. Finally Lily couldn't contain herself from one certain question.

"James…what exactly are we?" Lily asked tentatively.

James looked at her with bemused eyes and he asked, "Huh?"

Lily sighed inwardly at the slowness of guys and then she tried again to ask him the pending question. "What's our relationship?"

She waited for his answer wondering if she had been to bold to ask him that question. Maybe they really didn't have anything but she could hardly doubt that after the kisses they had shared. Or maybe he was just a player who-

"I'd say we're more than friends." James said hesitantly breaking off Lily's thoughts but much surprising her from his uncertainty. There were still many things she didn't know about James. When she had first met him she had imagined a cocky sure of himself in everyway guy.

"We could be more than friends officially. Together." Lily said with a soft smile looking at his hazel eyes that were watching her intently.

"I'd like that." James said with a smile and he put his hand under her chin meeting her lips with his.

"So would I." Lily murmured with a smile of her own.

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Lily whistled cheerfully as she waved to James. Her heart felt like it was on fire with happiness. After talking and the occasional snog Lily decided she should probably go see Elissa and Julia to let them know she was okay. Lily stopped into an alley and then turned to apparate back to her flat.

She stepped into her door and slipped off her winter clothing listening intently. She heard laughter coming down the hall and she recognized her two friends voices. She skipped down to the hallway and slid in front of the open door with a giggle at their astonished looks.

"Lily you're back! Are you okay? How are you feeling?" Julia asked after she had given her friend a tight hug.

"I am. I just had a splitting headache. I think he just gave me a really strong drink that knocks out his victims. Sicko." Lily muttered darkly but then she smiled excitedly.

"What a jackass. If I ever see him again he won't know what hit him." Elissa said with an evil laugh.

Julia looked at Lily's happy expression and then said, "What aren't you telling us? You look like you're going to burst from the excitement. Tell!"

Lily laughed and then she fell backwards onto Julia's bed with a light 'thump'. "James and I are together."

Julia let out a girlish squeal and Elissa laughed with a big grin on her face. They both jumped onto the bed next to Lily. "Well fill us in!"

So Lily proceeded to tell them about her argument with James that morning when she awoke, then her apparation to Hogwarts and her interesting chat with Dumbledore. She told them about the prophecy and then told them about going back to James place to say sorry.

"Our Lily is a gifted one!" Julia said with a proud grin.

"Jeez. That's pretty intense stuff." Elissa said thoughtfully.

"Yeah…I'm so happy that things are cleared up with James and I. It was such a ridiculous mess of things before because I wasn't sure if he liked me of if he was just messing around." Lily said honestly lying up against the wall looking at the two girls.

"Well I have something else to tell you two. Kadmus invited me to meet his family. I'm leaving tomorrow for two weeks." Elissa said with a soft excited smile of her own.

"Ahh you both have serious guy relationships. Elissa's getting married soon and Lily is with the most famous quidditch player ever." Julia said meticulously.

Lily through her arms around her friend and gave her a tight hug. "It's got to be the greatest feeling ever!"

"Wanna just hang around and have one last day all together?" Elissa asked her two friends.

"Sure." Julia said enthusiastically.

"We should go through our old pictures at Beauxbatons." Lily said thoughtfully.

"Yeah that's a good idea. I'll go to my flat and bring over some of my stuff." Elissa said standing up to apparate.

"Alright. See ya in a few." Julia said and Lily got up to find some of her stuff in her room.

Opening up her closet she grimaced at the mess inside. There was an assortment of various things strewn everywhere in the closet. Lily leaned on her tippy-toes and pushed off some clothes to find a dark blue box with lots of dust on it. She pulled it down and then proceeded to open it.

There in an order were pictures in categories. She found a Beauxbatons category, a friend's category and then a family category that brought tears to her face as she looked at the pictures that she had mercilessly shoved inside after she had managed to salvage some from Petunia.

Lily took out the pile of pictures from Beauxbatons and noticed that she only had a small pile of pictures. She took out the 'friends' pile and then put the box underneath her bed. Lily wiped away the tears from her eyes and then stood up to go back to Julia's room. Elissa had already gotten back because she could hear her voice.

When she got to Julia's room she found the two girls laughing their heads off at a picture. Lily dropped her pictures on Julia's table and picked up the picture that was causing Julia to convulse. Lily began to laugh at the picture as well. It was an EXTREMELY old picture of the three girls when they were in first year at Beauxbatons.

Lily's hair was cut boyishly short because she had informed her mother that it was too much of a hassle to tend to while she was at school. Unsurprisingly, many had wondered why there was a red haired boy at an all-girls magic school. Elissa was very short which made her look like a toad and Julia was the most normal looking out of the three but she hadn't grown into her face so her big blue eyes made her look like a bug.

They were quite unusual looking at that age. Or that was the nice way to go about it. "I got so many looks of disgust from all those prissy air heads at Beauxbatons after they found out I was a girl." Lily said with a giggle.

"Just look at us now. We're the most beautiful." Julia said, dramatically striking a pose.

The girls carried on through their dip back into their younger days at Beauxbatons. They got up through the year five and were talking about the lack of pictures and remembrance from that summer before year 6 when Lily suddenly felt an odd tugging in her mind. Soon the tugging turned into her vision going spotty and sounds leaving her senses. Lily could see the dreamlike Elissa and Julia looking at her worriedly but then all was gone for Lily was rushing through darkness.

She slowly found color returning and she stepped up in her dream/vision or whatever she was having at the moment. Familiar green trees enclosed an area and Lily saw a bunch of scattered cabins in the distance. She began to run towards the cabins, following the slight tug that was pulling her along. It was the same from the glimpse of James dream that morning.

The same boy jumped out of the cabin with his can of whipping cream and he began to chase the girl from the dream Lily had a few months ago. The scene changed and Death Eater's littered the campground shooting spells at the teens. Lily let out a scream as a flash of green light came hurtling her way.

Her eyes snapped open and she could feel the cold sweat on her face along with the forbidden tears that were leaking away from her eyes. Lily pushed herself up off from the ground where she must have fallen but then swayed backwards slightly to then feel a pair of hands steady her.

"Lily! Are you okay? Lily?" Julia asked in a concerned voice.

"Yeah. Must've fainted eh?" Lily asked in a mumble.

"I dunno. You kinda went in a dreamlike trance and then you fell to the floor." Elissa said nervously regarding her friend then handed her the glass of water that she had summoned from the kitchen.

"Weird. I'm okay. You guys don't have to look at me as if I'm going to die. It's what Dumbledore said that would happen to me." Lily said reasonably and the features on both girls' faces softened.

"Well…okay. How bout we take a break from the pictures and eat some food? I brought over some of your guys favorite chocolate cheesecake that I made." Elissa said enticingly and Lily grinned already feeling better.

"I'm game." Lily said and she followed the two down to their kitchen.

They sat down at the table and Elissa summoned the cheesecake over with her wand. "Alright lets dig in!" She cried enthusiastically and they all dug their forks into the delicate cheesecake with chocolate drizzled on top.

Lily raised the fork to her mouth and a grin fell across her face. Cheesecake, especially chocolate was one of her favorite foods. A soft meow came down near her foot and Lily raised up Doe to place her on her lap.

"Guys this is the kitten James got me for Christmas." Lily said with an impish grin at the thought of James.

"Oh my gosh it has the same color eyes as you!" Julia exclaimed as she looked down at the kitten.

"That's bizarre." Elissa commented when she saw with her own eyes that it had the exact same shade.

They sat there in silence looking at the kitten and eating more cheesecake out of the plate. Lily looked up at Elissa and felt sadness gnaw at her stomach. She was leaving for two weeks and probably after Elissa married Kadmus Lily wouldn't be seeing much of her.

"Liss we're gonna miss you!" Lily exclaimed and Elissa smiled softly.

"I know. I'm gonna miss you two. What am I gonna do without my two best friends to bug me?" Elissa said with a playful grin but Lily saw behind the façade.

"Find me a guy." Julia said dreamily as she placed yet another bite of cheesecake in her mouth.

"I will." Elissa promised and then stood up.

"You're leaving?" Lily asked with her fork caught midway.

"Yeah…I've gotta do some packing and pick out some respectable outfits if I'm meeting his family. They say a mother is the hardest to please." Elissa said and Lily noticed with interest that there was some nervousness to Elissa's voice.

"Don't you worry. You'll win her over with the Elissa charm. You two will be chummy in no time." Julia said bracingly and Elissa sent her a smile.

"Alright well give me a hug. I'll owl you. And don't let James hurt you. I know you're together and all but do remember he is the famous quidditch player." Elissa said seriously as she reached over to give Lily a hug.

"Don't worry. I will watch out for myself." Lily said and she watched her friend give Julia a hug then straightened to apparate.

"Well see you!" Elissa said and she blew them a kiss as she turned to apparate.

Lily noticed it had gotten quite late and she bid a goodnight to Julia then ambled down to her room. She closed the door then slipped into some warm fleecy pajamas along with her knit socks. A sot tapping on her window caused her to stop and look up to see an owl hovering near the window. She recognized it as James owl.

She excitedly crossed the room and let the door open for the owl to come in. Taking the scrawl from the owl's beak she turned it over to read it.

_Dear Lily, _

_We're all going out tomorrow evening for dinner as a group. We_

_as in Remus, Sirius, maybe Peter and I. Wanna come? Hope so. I_

_also hope what happened this morning wasn't all a dream. Write _

_me back and reassure me._

_James._

Lily laughed softly at James flirty writing. She summoned a pen and then wrote on the back of the parchment.

Don't worry James, as much as it's 

_unbelievable that I, the one and only_

_Lily Evans am giving YOU a chance it is_

_quite real. Don't hurt yourself thinking _

_about it hun. See you tomorrow. Lily xo._

Lily placed the parchment in the owl's waiting beak and then let it out through the window watching it fly up in the dark sky. She closed the window and then sunk into her delightfully warm bed. Once she was snuggled down and thinking about the days events only then did her mind come back to her dreaming/fainting event. What was with that same dream about the campground?

Lily began to think more about it but sleep evaded and she soon fell surrender to it.

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A/N: I am so getting good at this 'updating frequently!" thing haha. Well actually it's probably the whole 'I'm off of school and it's summer deal'. So yep the writing is going to get more exciting. Ah well. Jeez I have school beginning in exactly a week! Has anyone else started or is about to begin? I'm beginning a new load of honors courses so my free time is gonna be zilch and my dance teacher is adding a bunch of new classes. Back to the story though haha, there are some interesting hints stringing through this chapter.

But alas I can't be kept away from fanfiction too long! Where there is a will there is a way. Haha.

ANYWAYS please please review and reward me of my fast updates?


	16. Dinner Dates and an Alley Visit

A/N: Yay chapter 16 is here and all I'm gonna say is enjoy and review afterwards!

Disclaimer: JK ROWLING'S! It's all hers.

Without further ado here's chapter 16 of After the Quidditch Game.

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Lily looked frustratingly in her closet. She couldn't find anything to wear that evening to go out to dinner with James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. Or more so she couldn't find anything SHE liked. There were tons of clothing tossed on the floor after she had tried on about fifty outfits without finding something presentable.

Or maybe it was the fact that she was worrying more about what to wear since her and James were together? She didn't know, all she knew that it was terribly annoying to go through this much trouble to find one bloody outfit.

Lily grimaced in the mirror as she took in her appearance. She had just slipped into a black skirt along with an orange cashmere sweater making her look like she was getting ready for Halloween.

"For frig's sake it shouldn't be this hard to pick out one outfit." Lily complained to herself, already feeling a nasty headache coming full speed.

"Oh ho do I hear someone having a faaaaaaashion problem? Wait no longer for Super Julia is here!" Came an enthusiastic voice outside of her door and all of a sudden Julia had shoved open the door and was standing there with a big grin on her face.

Lily cringed and shook her head despairingly. "I can't find ANYTHING to wear and I have to be leaving in four hours."

"That's not enough time at all!" Julia exclaimed sarcastically and Lily glared at her.

"Hardly. I haven't taken a shower or anything yet and I'm meeting them all at the restaurant tonight so I want to go a little earlier to make sure I get there with plenty of—" Lily was saying feverishly and Julia gawked at her friend.

"Helllllo where's the real Lily hiding? Since when are you all flustered to go see James with his friends and about what to wear?" Julia asked waving her hands in Lily's face as if to awake her.

Lily sighed and slid down onto her floor. "I dunno Jul, it's like I'm all psyched out for this one date for some reason and I don't know why. You could hardly call it a date anyways cause his friends are coming along. I wish you could come."

Julia smiled sympathetically at her friend and said, "You know I would but I have a business engagement with my director."

"Yeah. Well c'mon help me pick something to wear tonight." Lily said in a defeated voice and Julia nodded.

Julia went into her 'super mode' and rushed towards Lily's closet with new enthusiasm. They pulled out dozens of skirts but then decided that since it was mid January and it was still very cold they didn't want Lily to freeze her 'buns' off as Julia put it unabashedly.

Then they flipped through piles of shirts and pants. It was one of those days that Lily felt like nothing looked good on her or they made her look 'fat'. Course she was always overreacting and most of the clothes that Julia forced her to try on looked really good on Lily but she was being difficult.

Finally, after much arguing and debating they decided on a pair of burgundy velour pants and a cream long sleeved baby-doll chemise that flattered Lily's shape. She smiled in the mirror and then threw her arms around Julia.

"Thank you sooo much. I don't know what I would do without you." Lily said with a laugh.

"I know." Julia said smugly.

"Alright well I'm gonna go take a shower. You're gonna be gone though when I get out so have a good evening with your director." Lily said, winking at her friend.

Julia shrugged with a half grin on her face. "He's kinda cute but way my senior by ten years." She said giggling.

Lily raised her eyebrows and then dashed down to the bathroom. She untied her bathrobe and turned on the shower with a flick of her wand. Putting one foot cautiously in to feel the temperature she noted it wasn't too hot and then slid in.

As the water gushed out through the nozzle and soaked her hair she began to think and wonder why she was so jittery about tonight. Things couldn't have changed that much since she had last seen him or since they had made it official. It would be just the same wouldn't it?

She lathered in her coconut shampoo in and then rinsed. Once her leave-in conditioner was applied in she turned off the shower and stepped out into the steamy warm air. Lily wiped at the humid mirror and grinned at her reflection. She squeezed some minty toothpaste on her toothbrush and then began to brush her teeth trying to calm her nerves.

Once her hair was wrapped in a turban like towel and another towel firmly secured around her body she opened the bathroom door and waltzed down to her bedroom to get dressed. It was getting on close to around the time and she wanted to be ready.

She took off the towel that was drenching the water from her hair and then absentmindedly began to brush it as she stared off into space. Lily stood up and drifted down the hallway to the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and her eyes roved across the measly contents of the fridge. Her and Julia needed to go grocery shopping.

Her eyes lighted up once she found the white container she was looking for. Uhmmmm cheesecake. There was one quarter left of the cheesecake that they hadn't eaten up the other day. Lily grabbed a fork and then dug into the delicious cheesecake savoring the taste.

She decided to let her hair dry naturally in the air so it would have a bit of curl. Her clock read 4:43 pm, so she basically had a good hour left to get ready since she was meeting them at six.

Lily picked up her burgundy pants and slipped them on. Deciding that it was a little too quiet in the room she flicked on her stereo and began to groove to the music. She didn't have the wizarding music radio, just muggle music. She preferred it to the former.

She rooted around her hair box and found a pretty black barrette to clip in her hair on the side. Lily slid onto the floor and flipped through the Order member list that she had gathered from everyone. There were still about 6 people she hadn't met yet because the meetings were always very short and small.

Lily suspected Dumbledore had various meetings during the week for a different small handful of the Order members. It was essential now that there were separate meetings for the rumors floating around about there being a spy. She didn't know who else knew that there indeed was a spy and were clarified by Dumbledore himself.

One of the positive aspects of being in the Order other than bringing down Voldemort and his minions were meeting the great people in the group. She had come to like Remus and Peter very much, James other two close friends. The Longbottom's were also a darling couple that contributed very well to the Order since they were well-known Aurors.

Lily finally slipped on her cream top on and then checked the clock once more. It was time to leave and get to the restaurant that they were going to.

She got her winter clothing on and then apparated in her living room concentrating on the place James described in London.

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Lily looked around at her surroundings and felt a twinge of anxiety because nothing really looked like what James had described. All of a sudden though, she heard her name being called and she whirled around.

"Lily!" James said with a trademark grin as he ran up to her. Lily felt her insides swirl around happily when she noticed the dark green scarf around his neck. His hair was messier that day and she felt her hand go up instinctively to ruffle her hand through his hair.

"Hi James." Lily said quietly and then she found him standing over her and leaning in to kiss her. She kissed him back but then broke off somewhat embarrassedly because she wasn't exactly comfortable with public affection.

"C'mon in, the guys are already in there and you can meet Remus's girlfriend." James said slipping his hand in hers and tugging her along to follow him. Lily quirked her eyebrows, since when had Remus had a girlfriend?

The restaurant they were going to was a muggle place Lily noted with interest. James noted her inspecting the restaurant and he smiled. "Sirius proposed we go to a cool place where they serve the… piz- pez- poz—"

"Pizza." Lily interrupted laughing at James attempts of remembering the muggle food.

"Yeah that." James said laughing with her. They entered the restaurant and soon found the comfy round table with sinky leather seats.

"Lily!" Sirius cried animatedly with a wink and patted the seat next to him.

Lily laughed and sat down next to him but pulled James in on the other side so she was in the middle.

"Hi Remus." Lily said warmly and she noted the pretty girl on his right.

Remus smiled at her and her and then said, "This is my girlfriend Gwen Kensington."

"Lily Evans." She said and reached over to shake her hand looking over the light brown haired woman.

"Nice to meet ya. I've heard loads already just hanging out with those two this afternoon along with Remus." Gwen said with a simpering smile pointing to Sirius and James.

Lily couldn't help a twinge of jealousy rise up in her chest while she returned the smile halfheartedly. Dear old Gwenny had spent the afternoon with her boyfriend and her other two guy friends. James looked over at her with a naïve smile and Lily returned it.

She suddenly noticed someone missing and asked them, "Where's Peter eh?"

James sighed and Remus shifted in his seat. "Peter couldn't make it tonight. He's been quite busy for the last month." Remus said thoughtfully.

Sirius couldn't stay too quiet for too long and he opened his mouth meaningfully. "I think we should order an extra large POZZA!" He just about yelled it out and the bustling restaurant quieted down at his outburst.

Lily clamped her mouth shut from the laughter and then James looked at him sympathetically as he said, "It's pizza mate. Remus was right."

"Aha!" Remus said triumphantly and Sirius scowled at him.

"They were arguing about that the whole way to the restaurant and even bet ten gold galleons on it." James explained to her as Sirius reached into his coat pocket and counted out some money, and then handed it to Remus.

"Padfoot this is only 7 galleons…" Remus said with a smirk.

"Dammit." Sirius cursed and he grudgingly pulled out the other three galleons.

Lily laughed and then immersed herself into conversation with Gwen as the other three talked about the usual subject: Quidditch. The waiter came over and they ordered two large pizzas since the guys had hearty appetites.

Lily found out from Gwen that she worked at the Ministry as one of the secretaries for the Aurors and that she enjoyed reading Witch's Weekly. All she did was gabble not letting Lily get in a word with James and Lily was grateful when the pizzas arrived.

Everyone dug into the pizzas but then Remus asked Sirius with a quirky grin, "How's the pozza?"

Sirius sent him a dark look, muttered something then bit into another slice. Lily patted him on the shoulder with a grin and then looked over at James kind of wishing that they were along together someplace not that she disliked going out with everyone but she did want him to herself sometimes.

Once all that remained was a few disliked toppings and crust they all stood up to leave. James ever the gentleman paid for the whole meal and Lily waited for him to pay, and then walked outside with him where the other three were.

The snow had stopped and now the evening was just crisp, the sky a dark navy with a few twinkling stars.

"It's so beautiful out!" Sirius said dramatically, clutching his chest.

Lily snorted and then pulled James a little ways down. "So what's the plan now? You and I could go back to my flat..—"

"James don't forget you promised to bring me to the Quidditch Pitch where you first played." Gwen's voice broke through their conversation and Lily raised her eyebrows angrily. What was with this girl?

James sighed and looked at Lily with annoyed hazel eyes. "Gwen's been nagging me all afternoon and asking me about my quidditch playing and surprisingly a lot about you. I promised her just to shut her up. D'you want to come?" He asked her hopefully but Lily shook her head.

"S'ok. Owl me later when you get home or something. How did someone as nice as Remus get hooked up with … that?" Lily asked wonderingly.

"Well she was quite random actually. I don't really know where she came from. Remus just begun to talk about her and then they were together just a few days ago. Anyways I better get going. Spect Sirius will want to come along so we'll see each other soon. Maybe tomorrow?" He asked hopefully and Lily nodded. She reached up and kissed him intently and then gave him a slight prod.

"Go on. I'll see you soon." Lily said and James nodded with a goofy grin on his face as he ran off with them. She waved to them and then began walking home not feeling like apparating just yet.

Lily was so caught up in her thoughts (which was rather unwise since it was late at night in the streets of London) she hadn't noticed a looming shadow behind her. The person grabbed Lily and put a hand over her mouth enabling her from yelling out and pulled her into an alley. Thoughts were racing through Lily's mind and she could feel panic rising in her.

The streetlight filtered over her captors face and she saw that it was none other than Lucius Malfoy. His sneering face loomed near hers and his gray eyes glittered with malice. How Lily would've dearly loved to tell him to wash the grease out of his hair because weren't purebloods disgustingly pure and clean? Alas she didn't think that would be a good conversation starter…

It was Lucius who broke the silence. "My dear Lily Evans." His voice came out in a purr and Lily felt goosebumps rise on her neck.

"Now now don't be shy my darling…we have some things to discuss and I wouldn't want you to feel uncomfortable."

He said silkily smirking slightly at her. Lily knew full well he was trying to make her feel most uncomfortable and to remind her he was in control.

"Well do hurry Mr. Malfoy for I have much more important tasks to attend to." She replied smiling at him. Lucius's eyes narrowed and his manner dropped.

"I hope you know that the Dark Lord wasn't tricked by your ridiculous disguises when you went to leech information out of Regulus for Dumbledore." He spat out fully intending on intimidating her.

"He would have obviously of guessed that by now." Lily snarled out darkly.

"Yes well unto more pressing matters for the moment…" Lucius said taking a hold of Lily's hand. Lily blinked and then she whipped her hand out of his wondering what the hell he was smoking tonight…and what was that clicking sound?

Lily wildly looked around and after not seeing anyone she turned back to Lucius glaring at him. If only she had just stayed with James.

"I have something to confess to you." Lucius said and Lily became painfully aware of how close he was to her but it seemed as if he was hypnotizing her with his gray eyes. Her will was gone and it was if she was trapped inside of her own body!

"I have become rather fond of you." Lucius said and with that he leaned in towards her and they're lips touched.

Something inside of Lily exploded and she felt herself gain control again. She slapped him with as much strength as she possessed.

"Get away from me you dirty snake. You have a wife, disgusting bas-" Lily was cut off when Lucius's hand came down hard on her mouth not letting her finish her sentence.

"Listen to me and know that the Dark Lord possesses something of yours that is very important to you. It might be worth your while to go and meet with him." And with that Lucius Malfoy was gone.

Lily felt a tear slide down her face and she wiped it away angrily. She was stronger than this, though it was pretty traumatizing when he had kissed her.

"Pervert." She said and then she too was off running to her flat looking around feeling rather paranoid.

Someone that had missed her eye though emerged from the shadows near the alley she had just left. There was an evil grin on her face and she said into the night before disappearing as well, "Prepare to have everything ripped away from you Lily Evans."

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A/N: Alright people it's the end of chapter 16! Ahh I'm so good at getting this chapter out before the 'real' work begins in school. This is SUCH an important chapter and I know some of you are gonna be confused at the way Lucius was acting but… there's a lot of stuff about to happen. That's all I'm gonna say on that.

So I don't know if you know but reviews are highly motivating so drop me a whole bunch and I'll get working on chapter 17. Hope everyone is having an okay time at school. See ya next time.


	17. Certain Revelation

A/N: Here's chapter 17 guys! We're getting close to the end I think. I'll talk more after the chapter. Read and review!

Disclaimer: The one and only JK Rowling's.

Chapter 17 of After the Quidditch Game

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Lily ran so fast from Lucius and the dark alley that her breaths came in fast gulps. She didn't stop to rest she just kept running. In the distance you could hear the fast paced thumps of her casual beige shoes that were digging into her heels, breaking open painful blisters that she did not feel at the time.

The only thing on her mind was to get home and lock the door tightly because she never felt more afraid in her life. She could handle talking to Lucius in public but an open confrontation and harassment? That she couldn't handle.

Her flat soon came into view and she almost cried out in relief. Her heart felt like it was going to burst from lack of oxygen as she trudged up and unlocked her door. It was dark inside but Lily slammed the door shut and made sure it was locked. Fear still clenched itself around her heart as she darted across the room to fill the flat with light.

Once the light was shimmering around the room she let out a real sigh of relief feeling slightly more secure in her flat with the door locked.

She walked down to her room and flicked on the light switch. Looking around she slid off her clothing and changed into her more comfortable running pants. As she shrugged on her big loose t-shirt she looked at her watch. It was forty minutes after ten. Julia must still be out on her date with her director.

As if answering her question a sudden buzzing sound came and a note memo came whipping down the hallway to stop midair in front of Lily. She quirked her eye at the note floating in the air in front of her but she tentatively brought her hand up to open it.

**_Hey Lily. Isn't this a cool way to send notes if you don't have an owl? Robert showed me how to do it. He also surprised me at our dinner tonight. He's bringing me and the other actors to New York City to first hand experience the way of the big city since we're incorporating that city's theme into our musical! I'm so excited. But I won't be back for the next two weeks! Sorry for the late notice, like I said I just found out tonight too. I've already come here to get my bags and now am in New York City at a really nice five star hotel. Spa tonight! Keep in touch. Love, Julia_**

Lily felt a sinking somewhat abandoned feeling settle inside her gut. Elissa had gone home with her boyfriend, James had left her to show 'Gwenny' the pitch and now Julia was leaving to go to NYC! Lily self-consciously rubbed her eyes then berated herself internally for acting like such a selfish baby. She should be very happy for Julia.

And besides it was only two weeks. It wasn't like she was afraid of staying alone in her pad for a while. James would be around.

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A man was sitting in a leather chair facing the fireplace talking into the fire. The room wasn't lighted except the green flame illuminating a man's head that was in the hearth. The one window in the room was covered by a tightly piece of black material as if to ward off people. Not that there was much habilitation near Lord Voldemort's private unknown condo.

"The plan went as according to what I wanted?" He asked his lips pressed in a tight line and his cold voice reverberating through the deaf silence in the room.

"Yes, my lord." Lucius Malfoy replied with a smirk on his face.

"Good. Do tell the young woman that took the pictures that I would very much like to meet her and congratulate her." Lord Voldemort said, a cold smile stealing across his face.

"Of course my Lord. May I ask of what you plan to do with Ms. Evans once she is lured to us?"

Voldemort's face hardened ever so slightly as if he would like to lash out at the man in front of him. Instead he merely took a deep breath and said, "We will give her what we took from her but then take it back."

Lucius nodded but you could see a swirl of confusion flit in his gray eyes.

Voldemort twirled his chair around until Lucius looked up to the back of his chair. "Make sure everything goes according to plan or there will be consequences to pay Lucius."

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The next morning Lily woke later in the morning for her, 10:28 am. She dutifully made her bed and straightened her Eeyore plush blanket. Her hair was overwhelming her that morning from its thickness so she braided it into one braid then flipped it back once she had put an elastic around it.

Lily's stomach grumbled quite loudly and she grimaced. So she went off down into the kitchen to find something to eat hoping that there was something edible left since she hadn't gone to the store in a while. She found some cereal in the cupboard and found that there was no milk.

Lily decided she should probably pick some food up at the store. She didn't fancy eating dry cereal so she went to put the bowl back but something pulled her back midway.

A buzzing began to fill her ears and she felt her vision going funny. Light pouring in from the kitchen window seemed to be blinding like the sun and Lily closed her eyes painfully water seeping down the sides.

Suddenly darkness swooped upon her like a disease. The bowl slide from her hand and crashed to the floor with a ear splitting crash now to her sensitive ears and eyes. The darkness evaded the light and Lily crumpled to the ground and away from the physical world.

Whirls of scenes were flashing in Lily's eyes, as she was pulled deeper and deeper through her 'dream'. Lily narrowed her eyes trying to decipher what she was seeing.

For some reason she was seeing flashes of the campground where the Death Eater's had attacked the teens, then a reply of Lucius talking to her in the alley and then an unknown vision of who she thought was herself looking very dull and unseeing. Her eyes didn't hold a sparkle and her movement around a large circular room seemed rather robotic.

Then another series of flashes came in her mind. The Daily Prophet wriggled its way out of Lucius Maloy's hand and began to beat him on the head. Lily wriggled her eyebrows at the bizarreness of it. Then for some reason a camera began to beat Lucius on the head as well. Lucius burst into tears and quite suddenly Lisa Spangeil appeared handing him a tissue.

Lily would have burst into laughter at the dream but something in her stomach had begun to work its way up to her head. Lucius's weird behavior in the alley way especially when he kissed her, the clicking in the background that didn't seem significant at the time and then Lisa's previous articles in the Prophet about Lily.

Her eyes snapped open and she said, "They bloody well set me up."

Lily reached to get up and winced at the glass that had embedded itself in her hand when she fell. She tried to pick out the pieces that she could get then put some ointment and a white cloth wound tightly around her hand. That would have to wait until later.

She ran down to her room to get changed. She would go to the wizarding store in downtown London and get the newspaper. Lily slipped on a pair of track pants and an old big puffy jacket. She hoped James was going to be understanding. Otherwise things were screwed.

Lily slammed her door behind her then took off running down the street trying to look inconspicuous. It was still bitter cold but most of the snow had melted and left London looking like a cold gray area.

Soon the little cramped store came in sight. It was actually near her part time job at Rose Bisbut's. Lily looked up and down the street hoping not many muggles were in sight.

Lily shrugged to herself then opened the door and stepped into the store. There were a few people in the store. Some lady was arguing over the counter about the price on the store's flour price. Another was muttering to herself as she picked through some vegetables. Lily looked over to the last customer who was inspecting the magazine and newspaper stand.

Her eyes widened at the stand and suddenly she slipped the hood over her hair hoping nobody would recognize her. She muttered the spell for appearance change and then she looked into one of the mirrors on the wall. She now had brown eyes, no freckles and a slightly upturned nose.

Lily walked over to the stand and pretended to consider buying a broomstick magazine or a guide to get rid of garden gnomes. The man who was at the stand picked a newspaper then went to buy it. Lily reached for the newspaper and her heart sunk at the front cover. There was a huge picture of her stretched on the cover of it with Lucius kissing her.

"Oh god." Lily breathed to herself apprehensively. Her eyes roved over the cover title and she felt herself alsmot throw up at the untruth of it all.

**Having an affair behind James's back. The Revelation.**

**_Here is the proof of what we were all hoping wouldn't happen to poor James. This picture, shot by our very own Lisa Spangeil was taken just last night. Lisa found these two in an alleyway. _**_(More on pg 5) **That's pretty low. Don't you think they'd have someplace else to go? She must have been too guilty to bring him home or to go to his house. Could she actually have a conscience? Hmmm, we'll all have to think about this one. Those of you who are in an outrage send an owl to us and we'll post it in tomorrow's paper. Ciao! - Gwen Kensington **_

Lily flipped to the where more pictures were of Lucius holding her hand, of what looked like Lucius looking down at Lily lovingly when he had come close to her and another shot of him kissing her. She choked back tears and then walked over to the counter fumbling in her pocket, looking for some knuts.

"Hello dear. That'll be 2 knuts please." The elderly lady said with a crinkly old smile.

Lily handed her the money and then the woman's gaze fell onto the newspaper.

"My isn't that terrible for that poor boy? I've always thought he was quite the catch myself. Course when this Lily Evans came along I thought she was sweet enough for him but this is horrible. That's just downright mean." The elderly lady rambled on and Lily tried to smile but she couldn't.

Lily ran out of the store and then made her way back down to her flat passing many witches and wizards who were holding the newspaper and arguing over it outright. Lily could see that they were most interested in the first page.

She finally reached her flat. She slammed the door feeling anger begin to course through her body. They must've been planning that little incident for a while. This didn't just happen overnight. There were too many things to have gone wrong. They needed her in the right spot at the right time.

A sudden vision from a while ago seized her.

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As Lily stepped out of the door she began to walk down the street. One of her light bagged packages flew out of her hand and out towards another street. Lily sipped over to it and than quieted down when she heard voices.

"Will you come and take the pictures?" A man said in a cold drawl and the hairs on the back of Lily's neck rose as she recognized the speaker.

The woman replied back with doubt, "And you say I'm going to benefit from it? How exactly?"

"I'll tell you, lets just find a more private place to talk." Luscius said with a suspicious glance around. Lily quickly grabbed her bag and fled the area, not wanting to stay and chat.

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Lily snorted and then pulled James a little ways down. "So what's the plan now? You and I could go back to my flat..—"

"James don't forget you promised to bring me to the Quidditch Pitch where you first played." Gwen's voice broke through their conversation and Lily raised her eyebrows angrily. What was with this girl?

James sighed and looked at Lily with annoyed hazel eyes. "Gwen's been nagging me all afternoon and asking me about my quidditch playing and surprisingly a lot about you. I promised her just to shut her up. D'you want to come?" He asked her hopefully but Lily shook her head.

"S'ok. Owl me later when you get home or something. How did someone as nice as Remus get hooked up with … that?" Lily asked wonderingly.

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She snapped out of her memories and then said out loud, "It all fits. I've got to go see James."

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Lily stepped into James flat knowing James would understand. He had stupid stuff like this happen to him all the time with tabloids and what not with his legendary Quidditch player status of the Wizarding world. He would see this as one of those ridiculous times when they tried to mess up the minds of the people that it was targeted at.

"James?" Lily called out in the flat and then she heard footsteps heading into the living room where she was standing with her winter clothing still on.

He stopped ever so slightly when he saw who it was and a dark look stole across his face. Lily ran at him to give him a hug but he stepped away from her.

Lily looked at him confusedly and said in a quiet voice, "What's wrong James?"

James looked at her with an incredulous look in his unsettled hazel eyes. "What d'you think Lily? Did you take at the bloody Prophet today?" His shouted angrily and Lily felt her insides begin to swirl around.

"You think that what was on the Prophet is true James? D'you really think I was with LUCIUS?" Lily screamed out at him her emerald eyes focused on him angrily.

"Did you take a close look at the front of the cover Lily? You two were in quite the position on the front cover. You look like lovers." James said frustratingly and he pulled both hands through his dark hair making it look even messier.

"We aren't. I… I love you James!" Lily said in an anguished voice.

"Don't kid me with that bullshit Lily! Stop trying to get more information off of me!" James roared in a furious voice but Lily didn't back down.

"What are you talking about?" She asked in hysterical voice.

"I'm talking about you Lily! We know you're the spy so stop trying to be so innocent!" James said heatedly.

Lily was so shocked at this proclamation that she just stood there with her mouth opened.

James just shook his head and turned away down to finish doing whatever he had been doing before she had come.

Lily however wouldn't let him leave that soon.

"You've got it all wrong James. Please listen to me." Lily said desperately tears beginning to roll down her face.

James looked at her unpitying and said, "You should try that thing Julia does, acting? You'd be good at it."

"James don't do this. Just please believe me. I'm not with Lucius. He's a scumbag!" Lily said with a half sob as she wiped away the tears that were now coming down rapidly.

James however turned away once again and said in a defeated voice, "Go home Lily. It's over. You're the spy and everyone in the Order knows now too. Just go home."

"No James! Why can't you see I'm not the spy or in love with Lucius?" Lily asked desperately trying to keep him there, listening to her.

James wound around and said in an angered voice "Get out!"

A sob escaped from Lily and she ran out of the living room and out of his house.

Once she was down the road a bit she stopped running and bent over to catch her breath. Her breaths came out in short white puffs of air. It was bitter cold out still and she didn't know where to go.

She would have to go find Lucius and make him tell James the truth. The thought of Lucius made her remember something else though. He had told her in the alleyway that Voldemort had something of hers and that if she wanted to find out what he had of hers to go meet him.

Suddenly time froze and Lily saw a portkey lying on the ground in her apartment. A cold voice spoke in her mind that made the hairs on her arms and neck rise up.

"Come now if you want what was taken from you."

Lily snapped out of it and then realized with a twinge of nervousness in her stomach that that was Voldemort speaking to her. How did he have a link into her thoughts and visions though?

Lily didn't ponder it too greatly. She turned and apparated back to her apartment. She found the portkey lying on the floor of her living room. Lily wasn't stupid though; she wasn't going to go meet this Voldemort guy without telling anyone.

Basically going to meet him was her only chance. Her only chance at redeeming herself and letting the truth be shone to the world. She needed to go gather information from him and let the Order know she wasn't the spy.

Lily grabbed a piece of parchment and scribbled a note to James that there was a portkey in her apartment to where Lord Voldemort was.

Once she had given the note to Delia, her lovebird she stepped determinedly in front of the portkey and then picked it up. It was time to go.

"Three, two, one." And then Lily felt that gut wrenching feeling around her navel and she was spinning around.

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A/N: I'm sorry it took me so long! But at least I kept it in less than a month time range eh? Wowee a lot happened in this chapter. I felt bad for Lily. School's going good. Hope you all are doing okay!

Anyways read and review please and tell me what you're thinking!


	18. Escaping

A/N: Hey guys. Sorry for the delays. School's been a bit hectic but I'm grooving in so the updates will hopefully come more smoothly. Ahhh this is one of the last chapters!

Disclaimer: JK Rowling's.

Chapter 18 of After the Quidditch Game

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The spinning began to slow down and then Lily landed on her stomach onto hard wood. She winced as she pushed her glass embedded hand up beneath from her body. Lily shivered slightly as the situation was secured in her mind. She had rashly took the portkey Voldemort had offered to her because she wanted to get some information for the Order to prove her innocence but how on earth was she going to do that? She would be lucky if she got out of this little escapade alive.

"Mmrph." A mumbled noise came out from behind Lily and cold seized her insides. She turned around swiftly her hand grasping her wand tightly.

"Lisa?" Lily asked incredulously as she recognized the bound woman in slumped up in the corner. Lisa's hands were bound behind her and there were tight ropes wound across her legs. Someone had shoved some cloth in her mouth.

Without even thinking of what she was doing Lily bolted to the corner and began to untie the cord around her wrists. Lily shook her head disgustedly at the sore red welts on Lisa's wrists and ankles. Once she had freed Lisa's legs she pulled out the cloth from her mouth.

Lily conjured a glass of water for the parched woman and waited for her to drink it and speak when she got her voice back.

"**I'm so sorry**." Lisa said with a crackly voice and a sob broke her voice.

Lily's face broke out in a watery smile and she nodded. She hoped that this wasn't a trick or a not so meaningful apology that Petunia had always used to tell Lily when she had took something of hers or called her a particularly nasty name. But Petunia would always continue to say the same things and take Lily's things.

Lily waited for Lisa to explain her state.

Lisa shifted to her other side and pulled a shaky hand through her dank blonde hair. She took a deep breath then said, "He scammed me. He told me taking these pictures would make me feel so much better about everything but it didn't. Then he knocked my out and brought me here."

"Make you feel better about what?" Lily asked quietly.

Lisa let a sardonic laugh. "About all the shit that I wrote about you in the Prophet before any of this. He said I had buried myself too far for redemption and you would never forgive me."

Lily raised her eyebrows at the sudden change of attitude Lisa had towards her. "You wanted me to forgive you? Since when did you ever wanted to be on okay terms? You never liked me in Beauxbatons and I knew you would be jumping up and done in glee from the position you were at the Prophet to spread stories about me. You definitely did not want me with the prized Quidditch plater James Potter."

Lisa looked away from Lily and into space. "You find things out… and you just realize some people are meant for each other."

"What'd you find out about me and James? I'm pretty sure he hates my guts now." Lily said bitterly.

"You'll soon find out. I'm not allowed to say anything." Lisa said with a sigh.

"That's a first that Lisa doesn't spill." Lily said jokingly. Lisa rolled her eyes and cracked a smile.

"So do you forgive me?" Lisa asked quietly.

"It's gonna take awhile but for now yeah." Lily said with a smile.

A door swung open loudly and it rebounded off the wall with a loud smack. There stood Lord Voldemort his eyes flaming with fury and Lucius was on his tail looking wary.

"I see you've come Ms Evans." Voldemort said coldly and Lily felt the hairs on her necks rise up.

"Yes I did." Lily said quietly and she proudly met the eyes of Lord Voldemort. His crimson red ones narrowed at her emerald ones and they seemed to fight for control until Voldemort broke the stare off and smiled tightly.

Lucius however sneered at the two of them and said, "Long time no see Evans."

Lily stood up her abruptly her wand in the air but Voldemort merely said with a yawn, "Expelliarmus."

Her wand flew from her hand to Voldemort's and she swallowed a lump in her throat beginning to feel panicky.

"I daresay, do we need Ms Spangeil any longer?" Voldemort asked Lucius with a cold smile and Lucius caught on to Voldemort's train of thought.

Lily did too for she suddenly grasped Lisa's hand. "Don't you dare." Lily said in a straight even voice though she hardly felt it in the inside.

"Ah but this is what happens Ms Evans. You see we use them as our bidders and then we dispose of them when they are no longer needed." He said with a cold laugh.

He raised up his wand arm but Lily stood in front of Lisa.

"No you will not!" Lily said and she could hear Lisa begin to sob in the background.

Lucius was suddenly there with his wand and Lily felt her body lift in the air and slam into the wall with a giant crash. The wind was knocked out of her body but that did not stop her ears from hearing what came next to the sobs of Lisa.

"Avada Kedavra." Voldemort's cold voice hissed out, snakelike and a bright green light erupted from his wand and hit the girl.

Lily felt the air woosh even farther back from her lungs as she looked at the now lifeless eyes of Lisa. Her eyes had a somewhat scared yet surprised look to them.

Voldemort smirked and then walked out of the room before slamming it shut with Lucius following in tow.

Lily hauled herself over to where Lisa was, her left leg smarting from all of her body weight crushing against it.

She tentively slid a hand underneath Lisa's limp body and consciously felt her eyes dampen. She pulled the woman's body next to her and whispered, " I forgive you."

Lily didn't know how long she just sat there in that room but she knew several hours had gone by until Lucius and Voldemort came back. She had been dozing off and was in a sleepy state when she heard them come in the room.

"But my lord do you think it wise to give it back to her?" Lucius asked in a confused voice.

Voldemort merely sighed breezily and said, "Of course Lucius. This way it will lure the others here and then we'll finish them all off!"

Sleep left Lily and she felt terror squeeze her heart. They were talking about luring the 'others' here. She had basically sent James and whoever else came along to be murdered!

As if reading her thoughts Voldemort turned to her and said, "Yes you thought it was clever of you to send James an owl about the portkey to here. Did you not think that I would want that to happen?"

Lily glared at his smirking façade with her defiant one.

"Lucius, if you will." Voldemort said with an evil grin. Lily just noticed the large object placed on a rickety old table. Lucius was heading for it his wand outstretched when a sudden blast of noise was heard from outside the door.

The door was smashed open and standing there was James and Sirius with triumphant looks on both of their faces. James looked over at Lily and for a split second she thought she saw relief in his hazel eyes but she then felt a lump in her throat when he looked away with a disgusted look.

"Come to rescue your girlfriend Potter? Oh wait I forgot about that article this morning. Hmm." Lucius said smirking widely and Lily felt a rush of angry fire go up inside of her.

James didn't say anything he just stood there with a passive expression on his face.

"Quiet Lucius. We must continue onto more pressing matters. Come with me." Voldemort said beckoning Lucius to follow him. Yet when he reached the door James and Sirius had their wands outstretched.

Voldemort let out a mirthless cold laugh that made Lily gulp. He whipped out his wand before they could utter their spell and suddenly both of them went flying into the back of the hard wall.

"Now be good children and we'll be back quite soon." Voldemort said and then he left the room. Lucius sneered at Sirius and James who were crouched onto the ground trying to catch their breath.

Then the door was slammed and Lily heard a locking sound. She waited for a second then rushed to the two men who were now sitting up. James was slumped against the wall with his eyes closed and Sirius was breathing in slowly.

Lily reached out a hand nervously to Sirius and he pulled her over with the strength that he had left. Lily watched him with confused emotions wondering why on earth he wasn't cursing her to who knows where.

"I'm glad you're okay." Sirius said with a slight smile.

"Why?" Lily asked without hesitation.

"What'd you mean? You're my Lily. Why wouldn't I have been worried?" Sirius asked confusedly then his expression changed and his face lightened.

"Well you know the world pretty much hates me including James because they all think I'm a slut even though it was a bunch of lies in the Daily Prophet." Lily said viciously.

"James you've got some explaining to do." Sirius said wearily and he slid down with his hands behind his head.

James opened his eyes and Lily wondered what was going on with what Sirius was saying. "I'm sorry."

Lily raised her eyebrows suspiciously and she folded her hands in front of her despite the situation. "An explanation would be nice James. You accuse me of going behind your back with… with Lucius Malfoy! Bad on me if you find it ridiculous that I don't forgive you immediately with just an 'I'm sorry.'"

A grin unfurled its way on James face and he pulled her towards her and their lips met. Anger still resided inside Lily but she hungered for James so she just pulled her hands around his neck and he pulled her closer.

"ALRIGHT! It's time for explaining not snogging. You guys can do whatever you want after we get ourselves out of this situation." Sirius said somewhat stressfully.

Lily broke off and looked at James expectantly who looked disappointed at the interruption. However the deadly look on both Lily and Sirius's faces pushed him to talk.

"I know you weren't going around with Lucius. Dumbledore wanted me to pretend to so that you would come here so we could follow you afterwards. Dumbledore somehow found out that Voldemort was going to pull something off like this." James said in a pleading voice for Lily to understand.

"Why didn't you just tell me? God, I thought you hated me James!" Lily said with an aggravated voice.

"Dumbledore said that Voldemort would know if we did tell you. You believe me don't you?" James asked in a hopeful voice and his hand went automatically up to his messy hair.

Lily regarded him for a moment and then nodded her head slowly.

"It's your turn though to try the serious acting since you're so good at it James." Lily said with a smirk hurling his words from earlier right at him.

"Yeah, yeah. I rehearsed me lines loads." James said with a roll of his eyes.

Sirius pulled his hands in a beckoning action for them to both listen. "Lily our plan didn't exactly work but we have to try and escape from here or put up a fight when they get back. We need to get back to London."

The door of their prison unexpectedly opened and in strode Lord Voldemort along with Lucius.

"It's time to get down to matter that are more pressing. I have something very important of you three and it's time you had it back. See I'm not such a bad guy after all." Voldemort said with a sneering smile and Sirius snorted at the end part.

Lucius walked over to the table and he pulled the blanket off of what looked like a circular crystal ball with swirling cloud inside it. Lily squinted her eyes to get a closer look but Lucius turned his back towards her, covering her view.

"What might this be my friends? What would Lord Voldemort possess of you three young people do you think?" Voldemort asked as he flipped his wand through his long white fingers like a baton.

Lily turned to James and Sirius her face masked into coolness but her eyes showed her confusion. James gave a small nod to Voldemort and Lily turned to him.

"I'm not sure. Why don't you just give it to us?" Lily asked him smartly.

"Eager Ms Evans. Well why not Lucius?" Voldemort asked his minion who turned around with the crystal ball in his hand an evil smile on his face.

He handed the ball to Voldemort and then situated himself next to him.

"This ball is full of lost memory. Lost memory of many people but mainly all of yours." Lord Voldemort said haughtily.

Lily felt her hands grow cold and her pulse quicken. What could possibly be missing from her past that Voldemort had stolen from her? She looked sideways at Sirius and James and they both looked somewhat confused only in a way she could recognize. They kept their faces blank but Sirius was twisting his t-shirt hem in his hand repeatedly and James was gripping the floor tightly.

"The time has come that you deserve it back." Lord Voldemort said seriously.

Lily felt herself growing more and more nervous. A hand found her hand that was supporting her from behind and suddenly a different flow of magic erupted inside her.

_We're going to try and duel. I'm going to attack Voldemort, Sirius is gonna get Lucius. _James voice said inside her head and given the situation that she was in she didn't yell out in surprise but she would have if she were someplace else.

**_I've got the portkey with me in my pocket so watch carefully. _**Sirius's voice echoed in her mind.

**What'd you want me to do?** Lily asked them.

_Get the crystal ball. Who knows what it is._ James said seriously and then the power was gone from her and she was back to the present.

I'm gonna have to ask them how they did that, Lily thought to herself as she felt James move behind her slightly.

"Stupefy!" James yelled out in a thundering voice and Lily watched Sirius yell a spell at the surprised Lucius.

Lily jumped up onto her feet wincing as she put weight on her bad foot but she determinedly straightened her body.

"Accio ball." Lily said quickly and watched as the ball flew up from Voldemort's arms and it hit her in the chest but she grasped it tightly.

James and Voldemort were now dueling sparks coming from each of their wands illuminating the dark room. Sirius motioned for Lily to get ready as he dueled with Lucius.

"Crucio!" Lily froze when she heard the next curse that came from Voldemort's mouth and she ran to push James out of the way. She landed in front of Lucius who looked like he was about to yell out an Unforgivable Curse so she pulled out her foot and kneed him hard in the groin area.

"That's for all the shit you did asshole!" Lily swore at him angrily and she felt savage pride coursing through her. He bowled over and James finally got his curse in. Voldemort went slamming into the wall behind him.

Sirius was right there with the portkey at their hands reach and in the background they heard Voldemort shrieking "Stop THEM!"

Lucius yelled out a strangled "Stupefy! Crucio."

But the portkey whirled them out of the room and then everything went white.

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The whirling of white cleared and then the three adults fell into Lily's flat onto her floor.

"My dear God we're alive!" Lily said thankfully and she hugged James tightly then Sirius.

James pulled himself onto one of Lily's chairs but Sirius was looking at the crystal ball with wonder. "Don't you think we should try to figure out what this is all about?"

"If what he said is true that's our stolen memory swirling around in there." Lily said pointedly.

"James?" Sirius asked him questioningly but James just shrugged.

Lily felt herself be pulled in by the swirling of white cloud that she didn't notice Sirius bring the crystal up above his head.

"There's only one thing to do then." Sirius said with a grin and at the split second Lily realized what he was going to do he threw it on the floor and the ball smashed into thousands of pieces.

Lily closed her eyes tightly and crouched into a tiny ball so that the glass wouldn't embed in her but when she didn't feel any of the glass hit her she got confused and opened her eyes to bright white light.

A white dove was soaring to her and it looked quite transparent. Lily reached out a hand to stroke the bird and once her hand touched it thoughts and memories came flooding through her.

"He's so infuriating Julia!" Fifteen year old Lily yelled out angrily to her friend who was sitting on the bottom bunk bed.

"Come Lily, he's not that bad and he really likes you. You can tell." Julia said in a soothing voice but Lily just snorted.

"Oh yeah I can definitely tell that he likes me Jul. He slipped a bloody frog down my shirt this afternoon! It was a declaration of love on his part." Lily said sarcastically.

"Oh Lily you're always looking at the negatives of him. Wait a minute….do you like him?" Julia asked as if a sudden dawning comprehension hit her.

Lily blushed red and looked away. "No I don't. I can't believe you'd think that."

Scenes began to over take Lily that she couldn't concentrate on each one. The boy in her dream with the whipping cream was now defined as Sirius chasing after Julia. Campfires and marshmallow fights cut through her mind then a canoe ride out on a full moon with a boy she could not see who she was with.

Lily was back in Beauxbatons and sitting there with her was Elissa and Julia when they were fifteen.

"Well let's open our letters!" Lily said excitedly and they all began to rip through their similar letters.

"It's some international summer camp for witches and wizards." Elissa said pensively as she scanned the rest of the letter.

"That means all kinds of people from different countries will be going!" Lily said excitedly and then her gaze hooked with Julia and they began to giggle.

"What're you two up on?" Elissa asked them with a raised eyebrow.

"Different countries mean that there will be different people which means new guys!" Julia said happily and Elissa sighed with a grin on her face as she shook her head.

Lily saw more visions of memory crashing into her. The bright whiteness turned to blackness and she soon formulated what all this exactly meant.

She knew James before they met on that fateful day after the quidditch game.

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A/N: Oh look at me I reviewed so soon! This past week has been crazy busy but I just typed up a whole tonight and I'll have it up for tomorrow. Tonight was the only day I didn't have homework/tests/assignments due for the next day. I've got a lab report I should probably finish though but whatev!

So? What d'you all think about this chapter? Guess what? Next chapter might be the last but I have a surprise for all of you who think it's gonna end super quick because in a way it isn't. And that's all I'll say on this subject 

Review, review, reviiiiiiiiew! Take advantage of the fact that this story is almost fini! Sil vous plait!

Anyways guys tell me your comments and thoughts in the reviews about this chapter.


	19. Another Game

A/N: Well it may be the end of this story but you guys will be seeing a component story connecting this one to it. I won't say anymore until after the chapter though so read and review! Love you all for reviewing and always giving me support for my first fanfic! See ya.

PS – JAMES, LILY AND SIRIUS ARE GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT MEMORIES FROM THE CAMP THAT YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW ABOUT YET. Just thought I'd give you a heads up.

Disclaimer: Sadly it is all JK Rowling's and these amazing characters will never be mine. **Sobs** I suppose I'll just settle with writing fanfiction.

Chapter 19 of After the Quidditch Game

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Lily saw more visions of memory crashing into her. The bright whiteness turned to blackness and she soon formulated what all this exactly meant.

She knew James before they met on that fateful day after the quidditch game.

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"Lily! Lily, wake up!" A misty voice broke through Lily's comprehensive darkness and it cleared away so that when she opened her eyes James was looking at her concernedly and Sirius had a big grin on his handsome face.

She took the hand that James held out and she felt a weird nervousness unfurling inside of her. Now that her mind held the knowledge of what went on during that summer at the international camp and her interactions with James would things be different between them?

"I'm okay, just a little surprised." Lily said quietly and James smiled at her holding on to her hand.

"I'm not! I knew you two were soul mates from the beginning!" Sirius exclaimed proudly and Lily blushed slightly thinking of the camp and the memories it held.

"It looked like you and Julia were getting a little friendly too hm?" Lily asked with her hands on her hips.

Sirius smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "It was only those summer flings. I mean I like Julia a lot as a friend but that's it."

Lily nodded in understanding.

"It's kind of shocking but in a good way." James said in a quiet voice and Lily locked eyes with him.

"It is." Sirius replied.

"How bout I make us some dinner okay?" Lily asked energetically and the two men smiled.

She flipped on the TV and handed the remote to Sirius. Then she waltzed off into the kitchen to prepare something. She found some spaghetti noodles and sauce but no meat. She shrugged to herself and began to make the simple yet delicious meal.

As she began to make a small garden salad James walked into the kitchen quietly. She was humming to herself as she grated some carrot on the top of the salad when his hands came down around her waist and he hugged her from behind.

"Things aren't different Lily. I still… I still love you. If possible I love you even more because now it makes more sense instead of loving a girl I only met 5 months ago. All those times when I was home thinking about you and how it was too good to be true but it makes sense now. It makes sense of how quick we got acquainted." James said softly in her ear and a warm feeling begin to flow inside of her.

She turned around so that their eyes connected. "You still haven't given back my teddy bear." Lily finally said with a slight laugh and a tear slide down her face.

James hand came up and wiped it away. "I know Lilybunny, I don't plan on giving it back."

She laughed shakily and pulled him close for a hug. They stood there for a bit, James stroking her hair.

Footsteps sounded into the room and Lily looked up to see Sirius with a note in his hand. "A note from Dumbledore. He wants us to come see him at Hogwarts."

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"Its like it never changed!" Sirius said dramatically as he looked around the entrance. James pocketed the special portkey Dumbledore had charmed himself for their entrance to the heavily protected Hogwarts. Lily followed Sirius and James who knew their way very well around Hogwatrs, especially the whereabouts of Dumbledore's office.

"Wonder what he wants." Lily cogitated to herself out loud.

"I'm not entirely sure but I think it has something to do with Voldemort's stolen ball of memories that he wants to talk about." Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Good idea mate." James said earnestly and they turned up yet another staircase.

Lily smiled at the two men who began to talk about old happenings at the school and she listened to them as they continued to weave their way through the castle to find Dumbledore's office. Kids from the school would pop out from classes and wave to the famous old marauders.

Finally they reached the gargoyle point and then Lily saw a look of exasperation pass between Sirius and James.

"We don't have the password." James said in an annoyed voice.

Sirius however never one to be discouraged said in a clever voice, "Lets just guess. We've been to his office enough times to be able to guess it eh? Worth a try."

"Alright." James said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Umm… Cockroach Cluster?" Sirius asked in a questioning voice and then grimaced at the stone gargoyles.

"Sugar Quills!"

"Pumpkin Pasties?"

"Cauldron Cakes."

"Chocolate Frogs?!"

Sirius glared fiercely at the gargoyles and James rubbed a hand through his hair in a frustrated manner when all of a sudden a light bulb went off in Lily's head.

"Pumpkin juice." She said and the statues slid out of the way to reveal the very same staircase she had trod upon just a little while ago.

Sirius and James mouth fell open in disbelief and she just smiled as she walked up the stairs.

"How'd you know his password? You never even went here!" Sirius pointed out in an amazed voice.

"I was here awhile ago talking to Dumbledore." Lily replied nonchalantly.

"Took you awhile to remember it eh?" Sirius said under his breath as Lily knocked on the door.

A casual voice from the inside said, "Come in." Lily pushed the door open to see Dumbledore sitting at his desk reading through some papers.

Sirius and James stepped in too and Dumbledore smiled at them all with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "I daresay you three have had quite the adventure."

Lily smiled crookedly at their 'adventurous' day.

"Yes we did. D'you have any explanations for us?" James asked seriously as they all took a seat in the chairs Dumbledore had summoned.

Dumbledore's face broke out into a smile. Lily realized it was a smile that knew many things that they did not yet and probably would never know.

"Yes, yes I do James."

For the next hour Dumbledore explained everything that had happened and why it had happened.

"I knew Voldemort had stolen your memories during that International Wizarding camp because I was the head of the camp. During the end of your summer camp Voldemort and his death eaters came to the camp and attacked. I wasn't there so there wasn't anything I could do. When I had found out what happened and thought about it I had a sort of glimpse of the future and how the two linked together." Dumbledore said vaguely.

"How were they linked together?" Lily questioned him.

"You see Voldemort didn't want you two to get together romantically for he knew of information that others didn't know. He decided not to kill you straight away for reasons I don't even know. I didn't go after your memories for I knew if you got them back he would be after you for the next 7 years of your lives. I bought you time until you were fully fledged wizards capable of taking care of yourselves." He replied quietly.

"Wow." Lily breathed quietly and James squeezed her hand comfortingly.

"So basically from now on he'll be after us?" James asked Dumbledore seriously.

"Yes. But you have the advantage of being in the Order. Dumbledore replied honestly while readjusting his half moon glasses.

"What about the others in the world who have just gotten their memory back?" Sirius pondered out loud then looked at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore smiled and said, "Voldemort was very clever with his plan. He made sure that people surrounding James and Lily wouldn't have their memory. The others such as Remus, Julia, Peter and Elissa will have remembered at the exact same time as you but it won't be as dramatic for I readjusted the spell when I found out you three had attained your memory. It won't be as confusing."

"Thank you." Lily said with a smile of her own feeling calmness flow over her.

"Dumbledore will we ever find out why Voldemort didn't want us to get together?" James inquired.

Dumbledore pressed the tips of his fingers together as he surveyed the three of them. "In the near future I believe you will find out. Be very careful now that you know all of this."

"We will." Sirius responded dutifully.

Lily looked at her watch and read four thirty seven in the afternoon. It was time to get going. "Thank you so much for telling us this. We had better get going though."

"My pleasure Lily. I'll be seeing you soon." Dumbledore said cheerfully and Lily felt a smile unfurl on her face as they stepped into the Floo network he had set up for them since he had vanished the portkey.

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"Oh Lily he was such a gentleman during the trip in New York City, I had so much fun! But I'm not sure about my feelings for him yet. But wow New York City was so amazing!" Julia said breathlessly her voice shaking out with excitement that Lily had to smile.

She listened to her friend babble on about the wonders of the Big Apple but she regarded her closely. How odd it seemed that for all her other friends they would have gotten their memories back but they wouldn't be pondering about them late at night for Dumbledore had changed the spell for them.

To them the memories would still be important but they wouldn't be thinking about the past as much as she had been lately. So much had happened at the camp. She had been so young yet fell in the love with the same man that she was so in love with that very day and presence.

Her thoughts wondered over to her dear friend Elissa. She had sent her and Julia an owl the week before telling them that the wedding was going to be that summer and she was so happy. Kadmus hadn't told her that his family now lived in Costa Rica so she had been very surprised when they got their.

"Elissa's wedding is going to be so beautiful. I can't wait." Julia said dreamily thinking of the possibilities in Costa Rica. Lily just snorted.

"Uhm me too."

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Lily had been busily working at her little café and doing errands for the Order. Her and Dumbledore had been talking a lot about getting a spy inside the Ministry of Magic and he had been hinting towards her that she should try it out.

Moody needed a secretary in his Auror headquarters and she was more than willing to get in and begin doing things that she had studied seven years for at Beauxbatons.

Things in her life were definitely looking up and she was feeling so great about herself. Getting her memories back had filled a gaping hole that she hadn't known was so empty feeling until it had been filled.

Lily was at home writing up some resumes for the Ministry of Magic and filling in papers when a tapping sound came on her kitchen window. She got up and opened the window letting James owl inside the snow slightly swirling inside.

The owl flew over to the kitchen counter and Lily grabbed a bowl to fill it up with water. Once the owl was lapping up the water she took the letter and read it.

_Lilybunny!_

_There's a Quidditch Game this afternoon and I was wondering if you and Julia wanted to come watch. Sirius is going to be there too. Guess where it is? Guess! It's in Egypt. They say it's really warm there. They sent Sirius a portkey to get there so come over to my flat around 2 pm. I won't be there because I have to leave earlier. Hope you come!_

_Love, James_

Lily giggled at the thought of going to Egypt for a quidditch game. That meant she would be able to wear summer clothing and get a break from the heavy winter clothing she had.

"Juuuuuulia!" Lily sang out happily and she skipped down to her friend's room.

"What?" Julia asked in a tad agitated voice. She had been memorizing new lines for another musical all afternoon in her room. Julia wasn't one to stay in one place for a long time so when she did her mood changed quite rapidly.

"James invited me and you to his quidditch game this afternoon! Want to come?"

Julia looked up from her papers that were scattered all over her desk. "I dunno Lily, I have like a bazillion more lines to still memorize."

"It's in Egypt!" Lily said abruptly trying to keep the grin off her face when Julia's face brightened.

"Really? Count me in." Julia said briskly as if she hadn't been thinking about not going.

"James said to dress in summer clothing." Lily said with a wink then pranced over to her room and looked deep in the back of her closet for her packed away summer clothing.

After mulling over her summer duds for half an hour she decided on a pair of white shorts and an olive green tank top. Lily slipped into her pair of straw colored heels and pulled her hair into a long ponytail. She grabbed a funky glitzy scarf and fixed it over her hair.

She slipped on her pair of big brown sunglasses and then smiled at herself in the reflection. Lily walked over to Julia's room to see the girl sliding on a tasteful red tube dress. Her hair was down and she had a big straw hat on.

"Ready to go?" Lily asked her and Julia nodded.

Then they both turned to apparate to James's flat.

"Yoohoo!" Lily called out and Sirius walked into the kitchen proudly and Lily stifled back a giggle. Sirius was adorned in a bright Hawaii print shirt and a pair of loose cargo capris. The shirt would catch the eye of anybody.

"Nice shirt." Julia said in a teasing voice and Sirius let out a bark like laugh.

"Knew you'd like it." He said with a grin and she rolled her eyes.

Lily gave him a push and then picked up the quaffle on the kitchen table. "Is this the portkey?"

"Yep. Bought time to go. Crowd around." Sirius said impishly.

The three of them put their hands on the portkey and soon they were swirling around in the air. Lily felt her insides curl up inside and she closed her eyes tightly until they fell onto warm ground.

Lily looked up and laughed. They looked like to be in the middle of nowhere. Desert land stretched out for miles and cactuses littered the grounds but right next to them appeared a large stadium looking very out of place.

The hot sun was busily glaring down at them and Lily sighed in a wistful sort of way when she whipped out her trusty sun block. Red heads like her just couldn't take the chances. Julia on the other hand was grinning and stretching out her arms and legs letting the sun bask in. She tanned easily and rarely got burnt.

"C'mon lets go then!" Lily said tugging both of their arms forward for them to follow her.

They walked into the open back part of the stadium where many wizards and witches were pushing their way through trying to get their seats. Organizers of the game were collecting the tickets and then there were wizards and witches set up to show where your seat was.

Sirius winked and then pulled out three tickets with a big grin as they approached the nearest wizard-collecting organizer who ironically enough was Aldric the wizard who Sirius had to argue with to let him into the game.

"Aldric old boy I have tickets this time!" Sirius said jovially and he handed the man the snitch shaped tickets. Aldric scowled at the tickets then punched a hole into all three of them and handed them back to him.

"Top box seats!" Aldric said and Lily felt her stomach begin to churn with excitement. They had the best seats in the stadium and it had been awhile since she had seen James play.

Lily went to follow them when a tap on her shoulder made her turn around. James was standing there with a grin on his face.

"We'll save you a seat Lily." Julia said with a wink and an all-knowing look at the two.

"Don't be too long." Sirius said with a straight face then followed Julia up to their seat.

James surveryed her for a second and she felt her cheeks grow warm. "You came! You look very nice by the way."

"Of course I came. Egypt's amazing. I like this idea." Lily said grinning at him and locking her fingers with his as they slipped into a backstage spot where the Quidditch craze people weren't allowed in.

Lily pulled out a miniature England flag and waved it in his face.

"Hey you're finally favoring my team!" James said with a handsome grin.

Lily shook her head laughing. "Only because Ireland isn't playing."

"No fair!" James said with a pretend sulky look. She just grinned and squeezed his hand affectionately with hers. James chuckled softly and they walked in silence down a bit.

"Are you nervous?" Lily finally asked.

He shrugged. "I guess I sort of am. But I'm excited too. I'm really glad you came."

Lily stood up on her toes to kiss him. She inhaled his wizard clone scent and then broke away from his soft lips. "I better get going you know. The game should be starting soon."

James sighed but smiled all the same. "How bout we go to dinner tonight, just me and you? A date."

"I think that's a wonderful idea Mr. Potter. It's a date." Lily confirmed with a teasing smile then gave him a little push.

She waved to him and then walked back to the arena area and up to her seat. The pitch wasn't closed in; it was open so the sun poured in on them. She soon found her two friends sitting up in the seats with a brightly colored umbrella shading Sirius to make it a little bit cooler.

Lily sat in between the two because Julia wanted to soak in the sun.

"What did James want?" Sirius asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"Oh nothing." Lily said nonchalantly.

Julia rolled her eyes and said, "Suuuure."

Lily shook her head with a grin and she looked out on the pitch. James was walking out on the pitch with his other team members and the stadium shook with tremendous force as the fans cheered and screamed. Lily locked eyes with him and blew him a kiss. He grinned.

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A/N: Oh my goodness it's over! I'm kind of sad actually. Ohh. Well how'd you like it? Since this is the last chapter and everything I think all of you guys who are on my alerts and fav list should review! I'll be super happy if you do! Wanna say thank you for everyone who has reviewed my story and kept me going. It's been fun. In the future I'll go back and edit my chapters because I know they need it.

Now onto the important news, I am going to be writing a sort of prequel to this story. It's going to be a small fic maybe same amount of chapters I had for this story or maybe less, I'm not entirely sure. But it will be the summer camp and I have lots of great ideas for it.

A short sequel may be in the making for any who's interested. If it were ever written it would be during Elissa's wedding I think.

So love you all and review! Tell me your thoughts and ideas, if you think a prequel and sequel would be good in the future and especially how you liked the last chapter.

See ya!

Lioness Amythest


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